The Sarratt family stood outside their house as they watched flames caused by old refrigerator wiring engulf their garage.
Shellshocked, Donnie Sarratt mustered few words as his two oldest sons lamented by his side, not knowing that day would be the last of the family living in their Stafford, Va., home.
But the youngest son, Elijah, mustered the strength to lead a prayer, an act burned into Donnie's memory.
"That kind of just changed the way I looked at him," Donnie said of the then-high schooler. "I just thought of him as a kid prior to that moment, but in that moment, he was the adult around everyone."
Like the years ahead, Elijah didn't let the twists and turns of life that day rattle him. He was a zero-star recruit who had to fight for every opportunity. He implored schools to consider his services, only to watch them pass him over.
"I always knew what I was capable of, just other people weren't believing me," the Ravens fourth-round receiver said.
Few believed in Sarratt, just like few believed in Ravens fifth-round tight end Josh Cuevas.
Also a zero-star recruit, Cuevas was overlooked. Life came at him with curveballs, but the tight end whose first love was baseball dug his cleats in and waited for his pitch. He lives every day following the same mantra as his new teammate.
"Embrace the unexpected," Cuevas says.
Cuevas and Sarratt grew up on opposite sides of the country, but their journeys couldn't have been more alike. They faced roadblock after roadblock that would've halted most players' dreams of going pro. But neither allowed circumstances to dictate their futures.
Buried In the Recruiting Mix
Before Sarratt was catching touchdown passes from Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza at Indiana, he was a victim of a recruiting cycle derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A three-year varsity letterman at Colonial Forge High School (Stafford, Va.), Sarratt played on both sides of the ball. He earned all-region honors his junior year and received offers from programs like Kent State and Liberty, but he was hungry for more.
After surveying his options, Sarratt transferred to powerhouse Saint Frances Academy in Baltimore midway through his junior year. He frequently took a train from Stafford to Baltimore to attend his new school and soon received offers from Charlotte, Ohio, and Toledo, among others.
Then, the world shut down.
The pandemic cancelled Sarratt's 2020 season at Saint Frances outright, though he was granted an extra year of eligibility to play the following fall. Still, strict recruiting protocols and roster shuffling threw a wrench in the college football landscape. Sarratt got lost in the mix and lost all his offers.
He said he once texted a Liberty coach trying to commit but was ghosted. In January 2022, after his final season, Sarratt sent out dozens of emails and messages to colleges, trying to get his foot in the door.
"Man, it was a lot of hours by myself, wondering why no one's taking me," Sarratt said. "You just had to take it on the chin and keep it moving."
Two thousand miles west of Sarratt, Cuevas was navigating the same uncharted waters.
About to wrap up junior year at Campbell Hall High School, a private school in North Hollywood, Calif., Cuevas had just been tabbed the team's Offensive Player of the Year after catching 55 passes for 700 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Despite his production, Cuevas didn't receive much interest in the college ranks — Campbell Hall had roughly 30 players on its team and shut down its football program after the 2023 season. The pandemic only exacerbated Cuevas' small recruiting footprint.
With his senior season postponed and California on lockdown, Cuevas tried to get the attention of college coaches by sending his film. But like Sarratt, the film could only provide so much information.
"I was getting DMs back from coaches, like, 'Hey, man, I just think we're gonna go a different route,' 'I don't really think you can run this fast,' or 'I don't think you're really this tall,'" Cuevas said. "It was really frustrating at first."
All Cuevas and Sarratt wanted was an opportunity. Luckily for them, two FCS schools came knocking. For Sarratt, it was Saint Francis University. For Cuevas, it was Cal Poly. Not necessarily the schools they originally sought, but they were eager for the chance to prove they belonged.
'A Legit Chance'
Due to the pandemic's recruiting restrictions, Cuevas signed to play at Cal Poly before ever meeting his tight ends coach, Casey Petree, face-to-face.
The pair was introduced in person at a café in Los Angeles. Petree got to the café early and was impressed when Cuevas arrived.
"He walked in, great looking guy at 18 years old, just big, strong," Petree said. "All he'd been doing was working out in his garage because they were on COVID lockdown, too. He was just in there crushing the Bowflex all day."
Some of Cal Poly's staff considered making Cuevas a pass rusher, but it didn't take long for Petree, now an assistant special teams coach at TCU, to see that Cuevas was in a class of his own athletically and had "a very high ceiling as an offensive player." During offseason testing, Cal Poly players would get in a four-point stance and heave a medicine ball as far as they could. Cuevas threw the ball further than any of the offensive or defensive linemen.
"Seeing him do that and then broad jumping 10 feet as an 18-year-old, you're like, 'OK, this dude has a legit chance,'" Petree said.
Cuevas redshirted his freshman season as he learned the offense and nuances of blocking. When he got the starting nod in 2022, Cuevas capitalized. In 13 games, he caught 57 passes for 663 yards and a team-high six touchdowns. In his last two games, he had 19 catches for 237 yards and two scores.
"He just looked out of place out there, to be honest, at that level," Petree said. "He was the best player on the field everywhere we went."
That same fall, Sarratt was making his own mark at Saint Francis.
Like Cuevas, Sarratt came in during offseason workouts and immediately made an impression. Saint Francis wide receivers coach Brian Wright treasured his hands, body control, and work ethic. Wright called Sarratt "a steal" and a "difference maker" for the now-soon-to-be Division III school.
"We were really surprised when we saw that he was still available," Wright said. "He's a kid that came in with a chip on his shoulder because he was under-recruited and used that as motivation."
Once he became a starter in Week 5, Sarratt never looked back. He had four straight games with multiple touchdown catches, including a 121-yard, three-touchdown performance, and was named a Freshman All-American, tying a program-record 13 touchdown grabs.
"We could do anything with Elijah," Wright said. "Any route we called, he was going to be able to do it for us."
But Wright knew his time with Sarratt wasn't going to last long. Sarratt and Cuevas entered the transfer portal after their standout seasons and received multiple offers. Sarratt committed to James Madison on Dec. 18, 2022. Cuevas committed to Washington the next day.
Taking it Up a Notch
When Sarratt arrived at James Madison, he was buried on the depth chart.
Curt Cignetti, then James Madison's head coach, is big on making newcomers earn their roster spot, and Sarratt was no different. The 6-foot-2 receiver entered fall camp working with the third-team offense.
That didn't deter Sarratt. It motivated him.
"I just tried to make a play every single day, and do my part each practice so they had no choice but to eventually put me into that starting role," Sarratt said.
Sarratt and cornerback D'Angelo Ponds, a second-round pick by the Jets, would battle it out on the third teams during practice. After each play, the defense would bombard Sarratt on the sidelines, trying to get under his skin.
Fortunately for Sarratt, he already had someone in his corner well before he arrived in Harrisonburg.
Sarratt's older brother, Josh, was a safety at James Madison from 2021-2023. Josh had advocated for his younger brother a year prior, trying to convince the coaching staff to recruit him. So, when the Dukes finally pulled the trigger, Josh knew it was only a matter of time.
"He knew he was good, but then once he thought everybody was disrespecting him, that put a chip on his shoulder to make him go even harder," Josh said.
Slowly but surely, Sarratt climbed the ranks. He rotated series with another receiver for the first few games but quickly earned enough trust of offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach Mike Shanahan to be a starter.
"Once he got fully healthy with us, it was pretty clear to everybody that he was going to be a super reliable target," Shanahan said.
Sarratt went on to lead the Dukes in receiving in 2023, finishing with 1,191 yards and eight touchdowns on 82 catches and earning First Team All-Sun Belt honors. He finished his sophomore season with four straight 100-yard games, and his father, Donnie, dubbed him "Waffle House" for always being open.
In the Pacific Northwest, Cuevas was hoping to make similar developmental strides at Washington. When Cuevas first showed up in Seattle, then-Washington tight ends coach Nick Sheridan had a message for him.
"You're not gonna survive at 235 [pounds] playing tight end," Sheridan told Cuevas.
So, Cuevas packed on 10 pounds of muscle, helping him evolve into a do-it-all tight end. That utility is partially why the Ravens coveted him in the draft.
Cuevas only had four catches in his one season at Washington, but they were all impactful. He had gains of 31 yards, 57 yards (twice), and 19 yards as he helped the Huskies reach the national championship game.
Both Cuevas and Sarratt expected to stay at their new schools, but another detour was about to alter their original course.
'No Job's Too Small for That Kid'
When Cignetti left James Madison to take the Indiana job, Sarratt wasn't sure if he would join a program that had gone 9-27 over the last three seasons. But even with offers from high-profile teams like South Carolina, Utah, and Wisconsin, Sarratt stuck with what had grown familiar to him.
Shanahan, who followed Cignetti to be his play-caller, called it a "no-brainer" to pry Sarratt away from James Madison. Along with his play on the field, Sarratt made a good bridge to help instill a new culture in Bloomington.
"You can't have enough guys like that," Shanahan said. "Like the work ethic, the guys that love football, that are going to put in the time and bring other guys along with them as well."
Shanahan saw Sarratt take a big jump in his first year at Indiana. Sarratt paid more attention to his recovery and diet. That discipline off the field led to better results on the field, as Sarratt caught 53 passes for 957 yards and eight touchdowns to help guide the Hoosiers to the College Football Playoff.
That same year, Cuevas also decided to follow his head coach to higher competition when Kalen DeBoer went from Washington to Tuscaloosa. Cuevas gained an additional five pounds to block SEC pass rushers and earn a third-down role in his first season at Alabama.
Bryan Ellis, Cuevas' position coach at Alabama, thought Cuevas emerged as one of the better blocking tight ends he's been around. When senior year rolled around, Cuevas was even more polished as a three-down player. He didn't get a plethora of opportunities in the passing game, but he made the most of them and was a key cog in Alabama's offense.
"To be quite honest with you, [he] probably deserved the ball some more times than he got it, and never one time, I mean, still to this day, he's never talked to me about wanting the ball more," Ellis said. "I think that's what the Ravens will see early on with him, is no job's too small for that kid."
Cuevas and Sarratt didn't know it at the time, but their journeys were on a collision course.
Thrilled But Not Satisfied
When Sarratt returned for his senior year at Indiana, Shanahan saw an even more motivated and confident version of the former zero-star recruit. Having one of the top quarterbacks in the nation certainly helped.
Mendoza was Sarratt's fourth different starting quarterback in four years. But like Sarratt's first three seasons, he was adept at establishing rapport with his signal-caller.
"He's got enough reps under his belt up to this point where he can adjust to any quarterback that he's playing with," Shanahan said.
Sarratt and Mendoza helped lead the Hoosiers to the postseason for the second straight year. After earning a first-round bye, Indiana squared off against Alabama in the Rose Bowl. Sarratt was on one sideline, and Cuevas was on the other. Cuevas had the home-field advantage, growing up miles down the road, but Sarratt and the Hoosiers came out on top in a 38-3 victory. They were well on their way to being crowned the kings of college football.
Sarratt's family recalls him saying before the season that he thought Indiana was more than capable of winning it all. Many players say it. Few back it up.
But Sarratt did. And when he hoisted the gilded national championship trophy after defeating Miami and leading the nation with 15 touchdown catches, Sarratt was no longer the written-off FCS product. He was a star on a national stage, bringing home Indiana's first title in program history.
"I wonder what they're going to say now," Sarratt said as confetti rained down on him in Hard Rock Stadium.
Just over three months later, Sarratt and Cuevas received the call from General Manager Eric DeCosta. They'll now catch passes from Lamar Jackson, block for Derrick Henry, and contribute to a team hungry for a Super Bowl. But being in an even bigger spotlight doesn't change a thing for those two.
"As a rookie, you can't come in here and act like the 'big dog,' because really, you're a small fish in a bigger pool now," Cuevas said.
Sarratt called being drafted by Baltimore "a meant-to-be" moment, returning to the same city he once suited up in as a high schooler. And like his first stint in Baltimore, he's as motivated as ever.
"I'm at ground zero right now," Sarratt said. "I have to prove everything."
