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For five seasons, Ja’Marr Chase has been terrorizing NFL defenses for the Cincinnati Bengals. Chase did the same in college with LSU, and beforehand at Archbishop Rummel High School, where he was a five-star recruit in the class of 2018.
But Chase, for as good as he is, wasn’t even the top-ranked wide receiver in his class according to 247Sports. In fact, he wasn’t ranked second, or even third.
There were three wideouts, Justin Shorter, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and Jordyn Adams, ranked ahead of him. St. Brown, of course, is a star for the Detroit Lions. Shorter is in the NFL with the Las Vegas Raiders after a disappointing college career at Penn State and Florida.
But what about Adams?
Jordyn Adams’ MLB Career Didn’t Go According To Plan
Adams, a North Carolina native, initially signed with the in-state Tar Heels to play both football and basketball. However, before he could even enroll in college, he signed with the Los Angeles Angels, who selected him with the 17th pick in the 2018 MLB Draft.
However, Adams struggled to find his footing in pro baseball. While his career started out promisingly in 2019 with Single-A Burlington Bees, he missed the entire 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then hit just .217 in 2021 with the High-A Tri-City Dust Devils.
In 2022, he hit .238/.317/.332 with four home runs, 42 RBIs, and 33 stolen bases across two levels. By 2023, he’d worked his way up to Triple-A and eventually got the call-up to the Major Leagues. However, he played in just 28 games for the Angels across two seasons before the team non-tendered him.
He’d later have stints with the Orioles and Milwaukee Brewers organizations. Overall, Adams hit .165 with one home run and five RBIs across 38 MLB games.
Now, he’s giving football another shot.
Now He’s Heading Back To College Football With SMU
On Monday, fans pointed out that Adams’ Instagram page, which is private, had SMU football tagged in the bio. One day later, On The Pony Express of On3 Sports officially confirmed that Adams had enrolled at the university and intended to join the football program.
At 26 years old, it’s still possible that Adams could have a productive career in football.
“I really felt like Adams was the most impressive wide receiver in this setting,” former 247Sports reporter and current Vanderbilt football general manager Barton Simmons said of Adams after Nike’s “The Opening” camp back in 2018. “It’s all on air, no defenders, and so the guys with fluidity and natural ball skills are the guys that stand out. In my eyes, no one was more fluid and smooth than the North Carolina lean.”
Now, who knows whether that would have translated to college football? And that’s even more of a question eight years later. But he’s clearly a plus athlete, and if things do work out, SMU and head coach Rhett Lashlee may have just pulled a rabbit out of the hat.