Chiefs wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster was eating breakfast at a Chick-fil-A in Kansas City on Monday when an employee approached his table.After a brief conversation, the worker stopped sweeping the floor and requested a vow, of sorts.If you play well tonight, you have to come back and eat breakfast here every game.Prophetic, right?Smith-Schuster produced his best game in six seasons, part of the impetus for the Chiefs’ 26-13 win against the Saints. He caught seven passes — all but one of his targets — for 130 yards, the most he’s accumulated in a game since the 2018 season. Unpredictable, in other words.Except the Chiefs predicted it. OK, and one restaurant employee.The Smith-Schuster story arc is rare outside Kansas City. These things just don’t tend to happen in this league. But it defined Kansas City on Monday night.The cast-offs, they turned it on.It was Smith-Schuster, yes, but it was running backs Kareem Hunt and Samaje Perine; it was wide receiver Mecole Hardman; it was tight end Jody Fortson.That group, in its entirety, has never shared a roster, but those five have something in common. They were all let go (Hunt) or outright released (the other four) by their respective teams. All left to wonder not when and where their next NFL opportunity would come, but if it would come at all.Thrown aside. They threw back a haymaker. The outcasts combined for 294 yards in Monday’s win against the Saints at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.That’s not a misprint. Smith-Schuster had his 130. Hunt ran for 102 yards and a touchdown.Perine, on the other end of the Travis Kelce lateral, was credited with 24. Hardman caught all four targets for 33. And Fortson caught a pass for first-down yardage.One of them — just one, Hardman — spent training camp with the Chiefs, and the Jets couldn’t get rid of him fast enough last year.The Broncos, owners of the fifth-worst offense in football, cut Perine out of camp. Hunt watched the first few weeks of this NFL season from his sofa after the Browns, owners of the worst offense in the NFL, walked on him. Fortson was plucked from the Dolphins’ practice squad.Smith-Schuster, in contrast to each of those players, at least has a fat paycheck comparable to his production.From the Patriots.They still owe him $7 million after cutting him in August. They paid him to leave town.Think of that. The team that ...
