Jets call, Mcknight bites
FREE AGENT: Vancouver College grad will attend Jets mini-camp
Brody Mcknight had to admit that the past few days have left him mentally drained.
So as mid-afternoon arrived Tuesday at the University of Montana, the senior placekicker with the Grizzlies was getting ready for some well-earned rest and relaxation.
“Just heading to the pond right now to go fishing and clear my head out,” explained Mcknight, the Vancouver College grad, who upon completion of the NFL draft on Saturday signed a free-agent contract with the New York Jets and leaves for the team’s mini-camp on Thursday.
“Montana has some of the best flyfishing in the world. Rainbow trout. Brown trout. Some pike.”
Yet the best bite Mcknight got was a phone call from the Jets.
Only four field-goal kickers were selected in the seven-round draft, so Mcknight was well prepared for the fact that his ticket to an NFL camp could come via free agency. As he explained, he didn’t have to wait very long for the phone to ring at his Missoula residence.
“There were about five to seven teams,” said Mcknight, who this past season was 21-of-25 on field goal attempts, and missed just one of 54 extra-point attempts. “I want to say that within 15 to 20 minutes after the draft, I was on board with the Jets. But I had no idea what to expect. You just never know until it actually happens. I knew for sure that I had a shot, but I just wasn’t sure how the cards were going to unfold.”
Mcknight had a superb senior year for the FCS (formerly Div. 1-AA) powerhouse Grizzlies, who lost out in the national semifinals. In a 33-0 win at Idaho State in October, he went 4-for-4 with a 51-yarder and three others of 40-plus yards. He now auditions for a Jets team whose depth chart is topped by incumbent Nick Folk, who last season hit on 19-of-25 attempts and a high of 51 yards.
It’s been a long road for Mcknight, who graduated from Vancouver College in 2007 after helping lead the Fighting Irish to three straight appearances in the B.C. Triple A championship final.
After initially deciding on attending tiny Carroll College, an NAIA school in Helena, Mont., he decided instead to walk on at Purdue, and spent the 2007 season as a backup at the Big 10 Conference school. He transferred to Montana for the 2008 season, helping his team to the national champion final in each of his first two seasons. After his junior season, he was selected in the first round (eighth overall) of the CFL draft by Montreal.
“I am extremely grateful to Montreal for drafting me in the first round and I look forward to maintaining my relationship with them in the most positive manner possible,” Mcknight explained.
Plying his trade in the Big Sky Conference, one of the toughest in the NCAA from a kicking standpoint, is just another part of a four-year experience that Mcknight hopes serves him well as he attempts to establish a professional career.
“It’s below 50 degrees [10 Celsius] for more than half of the season and you have to kick a ball,” says McKnight of playing in such weather challenged sites as Montana State, Idaho State, Eastern Washington and Northern Arizona. “You’ll get maybe one or two games where it tops 80 degrees [26C]. A lot of these guys that are ranked like top-five in the country, they are kicking in 90-degree weather. Kicking is a lot like golf and the conditions play a big factor. The good thing for me is I have seen the snow and the rain.”
Now he gets his first chance in an NFL camp, and he’s leaned on a friend, Calgary Stampeders kicker Rob Maver, for advice.
“We talk every week, and he had a chance to go to mini-camp with the Atlanta Falcons,” Mcknight explained. “He gave me the whole rundown on what to expect, the kinds of drills I should expect to be doing.”