Fittingly, Tevin rhymes with seven-on-seven.
A football game of that description — one that was devoid of beefy linemen — was a catalyst for the success that receiver Tevin Jones is enjoying with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Not too long ago, Jones was at a crossroads from a career perspective. He was pondering the next steps — football-related or otherwise.
“You’ve got to have a conversation with yourself,” Jones reflected after the Roughriders practised on Tuesday at Mosaic Stadium. “This opportunity, I realized it was worth it when I was playing seven-on-seven football.
“They were throwing me the ball and I was going crazy. It was like, ‘Man, you should not be playing seven-on-seven. You need to go somewhere and play football.’ I was like, ‘You know what? You’re right.’
“So I took a chance and came up here. It has been great.”
That is an apt description for Jones, who is fourth in the CFL in receiving yards (340) despite having played in only four games at the six-week mark of the regular season.
Jones sat out the regular-season opener before returning to the lineup with a flourish — catching nine passes for 121 yards against the visiting Winnipeg Blue Bombers on June 16.
He followed up on June 24 by making five receptions for 75 yards, including a 44-yard TD, against the host Calgary Stampeders.
Following a bye week, Jones caught four passes for 60 yards against the Edmonton Elks on July 6 at Mosaic Stadium.
That was a prelude to an unforgettable Saturday. This past weekend against Calgary, Jones caught three passes for 84 yards — the highlight being a miraculous 69-yard touchdown with 42 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
The latter major was scored in improbable fashion.
The Roughriders were facing a third-and-24 predicament when Mason Fine launched a deep pass down the left sideline. Three Stampeders defenders were in the vicinity, but Jones nonetheless caught the ball on the 16-yard line before sprinting into the north end zone and inciting pandemonium among the 28,842 spectators.
“As a receiver, you’ve got to think that you’re the guy,” Jones said. “So every time I think of a Hail Mary or see it on paper, I think, ‘I’m the guy who’s going to catch the ball.’ I always think that if the ball’s in the air, it’s mine or nobody’s.
“Fifty-fifty balls? It’s never 50-50. It’s 100-per-cent mine or it’s nobody’s.”
Most recently, it was more like a 30-30 ball. That was the score when Jones reached the end zone. Brett Lauther’s convert put the Roughriders ahead by one point.
Calgary proceeded to march the ball into range for a 50-yard field goal by Rene Paredes, whose clutch kick as time expired gave the Stampeders a 33-31 victory.
With considerably less fanfare, Jones had also contributed to the Roughriders’ previous touchdown. He made a key block to help spring Mario Alford for a 94-yard major on a punt return.
“The same way I felt about (the Hail Mary) touchdown is the same way I felt about that block,” Jones said. “Touchdown blocks feel way better when it’s a score like that, so I treat those two as the exact same.”
Jones’s prowess on special teams endeared him to Head Coach Craig Dickenson after the 6-foot-2, 225-pound receiver joined the team in 2022.
“We always say ‘one of 12’ on the punt-return game, and he was a big one of those 12,” said Dickenson, a long-time special-teams coach. “If he wasn’t playing receiver a lot, we’d have him all over special teams, but there’s only so many reps in the game and he’s our starting X (receiver) right now, so we’re just trying to save him a little bit.
“But that guy is an outstanding special-teams player in addition to being an outstanding offensive player.”
As a first-year CFLer, Jones caught 20 passes for 265 yards in nine games — totals he has already exceeded after just four appearances in 2023.
If he maintains his current rate of production, he will finish the season with 89 catches for 1,445 yards over 17 games.
It all adds up to a long-awaited breakthrough season for Jones, who played at the University of Memphis before spending time in the NFL with the Houston Texans (2016 and 2017), Kansas City Chiefs (2017), Pittsburgh Steelers (2018 and 2019), Dallas Cowboys (2019 and 2020) and Jacksonville Jaguars (2021).
Most notably, he appeared in five games with the 2019 Steelers, catching four passes for 61 yards.
The football journey ultimately included a visit to an army base in Killeen, Texas, where Jones also found himself in a fortuitously timed seven-on-seven game.
“In the off-season, I tried to keep my football skills up, so I’d try to sneak in sometimes on seven-on-seven teams,” he said with a smile. “So I ended up playing with some army guys, and they didn’t all play football.
“I was actually playing defence. I caught a pick, and then they threw me the ball again and I scored. They were saying, ‘This guy’s pretty fast!’ It just went up from there.”
At the time, the other participants in the seven-on-seven game were unaware that the newcomer to their game had NFL credentials.
“After I left, I think somebody told them that I’d played football,” Jones said. “Suddenly, I’m gaining 13, 15 followers on Instagram and they’re saying, ‘Come back and play!’ ”
He soon received similar overtures from the Roughriders’ player-personnel department.
“I got a call and they were like, ‘Do you want to keep playing?’ I said, ‘Sure,’ ” Jones said.
“I needed a sign — and that was the sign — so I just came up here and started playing.”
And now, at 30, he is a top-five receiver in the CFL.
“I feel like everybody has to wait their turn,” Jones reflected. “When your time comes, you’ve got to take full advantage of it. If you don’t, you never know where you might end up, or your career might be done.”
