Cards K McCrane getting expert help
Rookie chases his dream with assist from Dawson
Standing on the scorching grass, soaking in the 100-degree weather – while most of the Cardinals players and coaches were in the locker room – was Matt McCrane. The rookie kicker was already out of his practice gear and spent some of his free time talking with a team rep.
McCrane, who played for the Kansas State Wildcats, didn’t plan to be undrafted in April. He thought there was a decent chance of hearing his name called, but that didn’t happen. Despite not being one of the 256 picks, he had a backup plan, which he executed flawlessly.
“To go undrafted you get to choose basically where you want to go, and that’s kind of the way you wanna do it as a specialist,” McCrane said. “You either wanna go where there’s a good special teams coach, go where there’s an opportunity to play, or learn from somebody.”
McCrane got everything he envisioned and more, signing with the Cardinals in late April. Although he had a list of “seven to eight teams,” Arizona is where he wanted to be – especially since he had a relationship with Jeff Rodgers, the special teams coordinator.
Their relationship dates to McCrane’s time with the Wildcats, as he worked out with Rodgers during the season. Following the draft, Rodgers wasted no time and expressed interest in signing the kicker.
Outside of Rodgers, another reason McCrane was fond of being in one of the hottest states in America is that he believes “Arizona is prime for kicking a football.”
“The pressure in the ball, the particles move a little bit faster because of the temperature in the air,” McCrane said. “So, Arizona is a prime spot for that. I don’t have to worry about super windy conditions out here. Which at KState, I dealt with all the time.”
Great weather conditions and the presence of Rodgers played a role in McCrane’s decision, but the possibility to learn from a future Hall of Famer, Phil Dawson, was too hard to pass on.
“I get to learn from him and see what happens. It’s been an amazing experience.”
Matt McCrane Cardinals kicker, on Phil Dawson
“It’s been different than I thought it was,” McCrane said of Dawson, the 43year-old Cardinals kicker. “I thought it’d be like come in, competition and just kinda, not distance yourself from each other, but Phil’s been awesome. I struggled a little bit at the beginning of camp, and he’s been helping me with my plant foot or different mechanics of kicking. He’s been giving me experiences of game play and stuff you can’t get from somebody that doesn’t play in the National Football League."
Even though there’s a 20-year difference between the kickers, Dawson has taken McCrane under his guidance.
“So, I got to come here, come to Arizona and learn from Phil, who’s a future Hall of Famer,” McCrane said. “One of the best kickers in the National Football League. So really, I get to learn from him and see what happens. It’s been an amazing experience.”
Along with Dawson, who’s entering his 20th season, McCrane’s been able to be in the presence of other veterans such as Larry Fitzgerald, Sam Bradford, Patrick Peterson and Chandler Jones.
“It’s been amazing, actually,” McCrane said. “Trying to take it all in, especially being around some of the big-name guys is pretty cool, something you dream of as a kid.”
Despite learning from the veterans, managing meetings and workouts as a rookie, McCrane is still focused on school. He graduated from Kansas State in 2016 with a marketing degree and is now making progress toward earning his MBA.
McCrane said a career in government interests him as Plan B, and he’s explored such a route with the president of Kansas State, Richard Myers, a retired U.S. Air Force general.
He’s two classes short and hoped to finish the program this summer, but Plan A requires workouts and meetings as he pursues his NFL dream.