The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Xavier grad Santos-Knox catches on with Winnipeg
Linebacker traveled to Charlotte for CFL tryout
Three years ago, after four productive seasons at linebacker for the University of Massachusetts, followed by a rookie tryout with the Philadelphia Eagles that didn’t pan out, Jovan Santos-Knox took a self-imposed breather from football.
The Xavier High graduate spent the latter half of 2016 earning a paycheck, training and “trying to figure things out.” Then the following spring, his future in the game still uncertain, his father nudged him. If the NFL won’t call, Dad said, why not look into the Canadian Football League?
“My dad brought up the CFL as an opportunity. I didn’t know much about the league, so I researched it,” said Santos-Knox, who played on two state championship teams at Xavier. “It’s a competitive league and a lot of great players have come out of there. They can only have so many Americans on their (rosters), so it’s pretty competitive for an American player to get a spot on a CFL team.”
Father and son went north for open calls with
Montreal and Calgary. Neither yielded an offer. This surprised Byron Knox, a coach himself in gymnastics at the state and national levels, who said his son finally got to perform for scouts at a warm-weather site and ended up posting his fastest time in the 40.
Frustrated, they returned to Middletown and square one. Eventually, the son was motivated one more time by the father, who noticed the Winnipeg Blue Bombers would be holding an open tryout in North Carolina.
“I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it, but my dad has always been … he kept pushing me and saying, ‘Hey, you belong,’ ” Jovan said. “It’s not like I was doubting myself, but I had questions. My dad was the one who got me to go down there. We drove the nine hours to Charlotte, I did really well at the camp and they liked me, but I didn’t expect much.”
Winnipeg head scout Danny McManus, who doubles as the team’s assistant GM, attended the tryout and clearly liked what he saw in the 6-foot-2, 232pound linebacker. A few days later, Santos-Knox got a call saying the Bombers had a need at the position and a contract was in the mail. He signed it, flew to Winnipeg and, today, in his first full season as a starter, is fully enjoying life as a pro.
“Having that year off, I never redshirted in college, but I personally looked at it as a redshirt year,” SantosKnox said after a recent Bombers practice. “It really tested my everything in being out that whole year, especially my mental strength. I wasn’t lost, but it was a journey for sure.”
Santos-Knox, 24, made Winnipeg’s practice squad in 2017. Soon after, a teammate’s injury opened up a spot on special teams. Another injury, this one at linebacker, vaulted him into the starting lineup, where he had two sacks, two interceptions and 66 tackles in 16 games. In Winnipeg’s 3-3 start this season, he has 29 tackles, second-best on the team, and a sack playing from the weak side and sideline to sideline.
“When the CFL thing came about, I remember he first made the practice squad and I shot him a text to say ‘great job,’ ” said Sean Marinan, who coached Santos-Knox at Xavier. “He said, ‘It’s only the practice squad,’ but I felt he’d make his way onto the active roster.
“That’s what happens. Opportunity comes about for whatever reason, and the point was when he got on the field, I felt they would keep him there. He’s good enough, and it’s such a tough business at that level, but you do get injuries and I just felt it was going to happen for him. Jovan is a high-energy kid all the time, and he’s always been a mature kid. He’s very positive about everything and he’s fun to be around.”
After he stuck on the first-team unit, SantosKnox said McManus pulled him into his office.
“He gave me my $100 back. He said, ‘You earned your tryout fee back,” he said. “For me, it was the best $100 I’ve ever spent.”
One of the challenges for Santos-Knox, who got into the sport through the Middletown Tigers youth program, was the acclimation to Canadian-style football. The CFL, which has 46man active rosters as opposed to the NFL’s 53, plays on a larger field than the NFL (11.7 yards wider and 10 yards longer), with 12 men instead of 11, and three downs instead of four.
In the CFL, multiple offensive players can be in motion at the same time as opposed to the NFL rule of only one, which requires linebackers on the edge to fly all over the field.
“You really have to lock in and focus when you have a bunch of guys running around before the play,” Santos-Knox said. “That was different for me. There is a lot more space that you’re playing in, a lot more one-on-one situations, a lot more open-field tackles. Up here, my coverage skills have gotten so much better. That’s what (NFL) scouts will see on my film, my coverage ability. I feel every game I’m one-on-one and can show my athletic ability, that I can cover space, cover any position.”
Santos-Knox’s speed is what led Marinan to believe he was NFL material in 2017.
“I still think he can play on Sundays,” Marinan said. “His biggest attribute is his speed for his size, and I thought that was really why he would get a shot at the NFL first, because he does run so well. He was a tight end at Xavier, too. He played both sides of the ball, caught a lot of passes and was very athletic.
“I think the NFL might want him thicker and heavier, but even though I say that, because off his speed, they might not be so worried about that. There are some teams that play strong safety-type kids at linebacker now, because they want that speed. It’s a question of the right fit.”
After Xavier, SantosKnox honed his defensive game at UMass, where he played in 10 games as a freshman and was a starter his last three seasons. He had 143 tackles as a junior, which is still the eighthbest single-season total in UMass history. The Minutemen won only eight games in his four seasons, so that was somewhat of a shock to the system after experiencing significant success at Xavier.
“UMass was a great time and a great learning experience,” said Santos-Knox, who has a degree in sociology. “I can count on both hands our number of wins. At Xavier, I was used to dominating. As a true freshman, I started at UMass, and I take a lot of pride in playing all four years. I definitely learned a lot. When things were going bad, it wasn’t easy. Those times taught me how to continue to be coached and play through struggles. The whole journey in itself was a humbling experience, but I was able to put my best foot forward because of the things I learned at Xavier.”
In Winnipeg, he is playing on the option year of his two-year rookie contract. In the CFL, trades and renegotiation of contracts are handled after the season ends in November. His options this winter would appear to consist of contract discussions with Winnipeg, an opportunity with another CFL team, or a trip to North Carolina or Florida — maybe this time by plane — for an NFL tryout.
On Thursday, his father, who coaches women’s gymnastics at the University of Bridgeport and is nationally known in the sport, his mother and sisters made another trip north for Friday’s home game against Toronto.
“The CFL is a very good league to be in,” SantosKnox said. “My goal is to get back Down South and get to the NFL. To play as much as I have and put numbers up in Winnipeg, I hope this will give me an opportunity with the NFL.”