New Orleans Saints Forums - blackandgold.com - The Advocate Saints wideout Cyril Grayson already putting LSU track career to use in OTAs

Cyril Grayson sees the media mob coming and makes a fast dash to his locker. He quickly punches in the code to the lock box, grabs a washcloth, wipes his face dry from sweat and readies to face the cameras.

The Archbishop Rummel and LSU graduate is no stranger to the unwavering humidity of Louisiana summers, but he still needs time to get used to the pressure of being a hometown hero in an NFL locker room.

“I’m really just trying to be who I am,” he said. “Just the best ‘me’ I can be every day I’m out there.”

At his core, Grayson is a four-time NCAA track and field national champion, part of four separate title-winning 4x400 relay teams during his tenure at LSU, where he was a seven-time All-American and became one of the most decorated relay runners in the program’s history.

https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.town...ize=1700%2C902

But in a way, his gifted combination of endurance and speed, both pivotal for a 400-meter specialist, previously kept him off the football field for nearly six years. Because Grayson signed a track and field scholarship with the Tigers after taking both the outdoor Class 5A 400 and 800-meter state titles his senior year at Rummel in 2012 — rather than a football scholarship — rules prevented him from competing in both, had he managed to win a walk-on spot.

Instead, Grayson wrote himself into the history books at the Bernie Moore Track Complex before essentially campaigning into a spot at the LSU football team’s 2017 Pro Day, where he caught every pass thrown his way, ran a 4.33 40-yard-dash and posted the day’s bests in the 60-yard shuttle and the broad jump.

And though he signed a three-year rookie contract with the Seahawks just days after that performance, Grayson has never found a way to stick on an NFL roster. Call it bias against a player who hadn’t played a competitive regular season or postseason snap — at any level — since the fall of 2011; call it the struggles of maybe being seen by some as a one-trick pony.

But after the Bears, who were the third team Grayson hopped onto in 2018 and who signed him to a reserve/futures contract in January, cut him following their rookie minicamp on May 6, he dropped a feeler to Saints senior offensive assistant coach Curtis Johnson, who managed to get him an invitation to the Saints minicamp the following weekend.

There, his speed alone dominated the spotlight against younger, inexperienced defenders.

more on The Advocate