ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — How long has it been since Marcedes Lewis entered the NFL?
So long that during his first training camp, he had to do the “Oklahoma Drill,” the long-time staple of football practices that largely faded from use in the NFL in the 2010s and was officially banned by the league in 2019, given the injury rate associated with it.
Even in 2006, plenty of teams — including the Broncos, then coached by Mike Shanahan — eschewed the drill, which sees a blocker go one-on-one against a defender, attempting to keep the player from reaching a ballcarrier behind him.
But back then, the Jacksonville Jaguars still did it. And Marcedes Lewis, then a rookie first-round pick, brought aboard after emerging as a dynamic pass-catcher at UCLA, found himself squarely in the middle of it.
Fortunately, he was prepared — thanks to his college position coach, Jon Embree, the eventual CU head coach who is now assistant head coach and tight ends coach with the Miami Dolphins.
“He’s like my step-pops,” Lewis said. “He coached me at UCLA and he still watches my film and everything now.
“And when I got to UCLA, I was more of a raw athlete doing all this stuff in the pass game and hadn’t really sunk my teeth into the run game yet as a sophomore in college.”
Embree saw the potential in Marcedes Lewis. But he also needed to convey a lesson: Pass catchers make it — but blockers endure.
“He pulled me aside and was like, ‘Hey, like there’s a lot of people that can catch the ball and run and do all of that. You want to play for a long time, you need to learn how to get your nose dirty.’”
That’s what he did when the Jaguars threw him into the Oklahoma Drill.
“It was Fred Taylor behind me and Maurice Jones-Drew. And I went up, I had three reps, pancaked the first two guys, moved the third guy out the way,” Marcedes Lewis recalled.
“Freddie T. runs up to me, jumps on my neck. And he used to call me ‘Slim’ because I was always this height, but I didn’t have the mass that I do 1761814150. And he was like, ‘Hey, Slim, you keep blocking like that, you’re gonna be playing for a long time.’
“He texted me this morning. He was like, ‘Man, you my hero, bro. I can’t believe that you’re doing this.; And I’m like, ‘You remember the conversation that we had?’ That meant a lot to me, and that’s something that I carry every day.
“And, yeah, that’s what it’s about.”
Marcedes Lewis would become a prolific pass-catcher for the Jaguars. Only two players at any position have more receptions and receiving yards.
But his last season with even 400 receiving yards was in 2012. He played seven seasons as one of the NFL’s better pass-catching tight ends; since then, he’s never had more than 25 receptions in a season.
In other words Lewis is about to hit Year 13 as a blocking tight end. He’s had a second career in the length beyond most players’ entire careers.
AND MARCEDES LEWIS IS STILL SO DEPENDABLE THAT THE BRONCOS CALLED
Marcedes Lewis had not filed his retirement papers, but acknowledged a state of “peace” and “allowing” with what would come.
Still, he found himself making an every-six-weeks trip to Joshua Tree in California — “just to relax and kind of be intentional about my life going forward,” he said.
It was there, sitting in a sauna, that he saw a phone call from Denver.
“Obviously, I don’t have it saved. So, I didn’t answer at first. I thought it was spam,” Lewis said.
“And then I got another call and then GM [George Paton] left a message. I called him back. He’s like, ‘Can you hop on a plane tonight?’ I was like, ‘Of course.’”
By Monday night, he was in the Denver area. On Tuesday, he went through his tryout paces. Wednesday, he had a practice-squad contract and jersey No. 89, comfortable with who and what he is at this point in his football life.
“I live my life like I’m on a one day contract,” Marcedes Lewis said. “If I don’t get my absolute best or whatever it is I’m doing that day, I can’t renew my contract. And that’s for myself. And that’s a promise that I’ve made to myself. And so that’s how I lead.
“And I transmute that energy into positive things and I rub off on people and it’s one of my superpowers.”
Now, Marcedes Lewis gets one more chance to do that. All because he can block well. In doing so, he’s proven both Taylor and Embree, his old coach, correct.
“[Embree] was like, ‘You want to play for a while. When you slow down, you’ll still be able to block because your technique is really good,’” Lewis recalled.
And that’s why the Broncos called him up, out of the sauna and into uniform.
