Just to follow up - Apparently after the embarrasing rookie camp McKnight did work extra hard and didn't just sit around like people assumed...
I'm posting this as a follow up in case people were ready to just write him off as a deep sleeper - He MIGHT have some value with Greene unproven and somethinking LT is done.
As a fan, I can't say either way but, just hope for the best..... I think both stories need to be taken with a grain of salt - I think coaches like Rex love tear down young kids and build them back up, and then again, this article is from the team site....
McKnight
Everything’s a full go again with Joe McKnight.
The Jets’ fourth-round rookie from Southern Cal was a full go at this morning’s first practice of Jets training camp at SUNY Cortland, running the ball, catching it, returning kickoffs. He’s ready to put his minicamp and conditioning test issues behind him and correct those first impressions he gave to fans.
“Yeah, I was frustrated,” McKnight said after the morning practice. “I fell behind at the rookie minicamp and I really wanted to come out and prove myself. Everything went through my head about what people thought, their perceptions of me. Once I’m on the field it’s up to me to prove myself and I don’t worry about it. But when I get off the field it’s tough.”
McKnight’s failed conditioning run came Thursday at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center, which landed him temporarily on the Reserve/Non-Football Injury list.
It seemed more a case of him overtraining for the test rather than undertraining. The next day he could be seen working with Sal Alosi and his trainers, stretching his lower body.
“It was just a bad day,” he said. “I just drained my legs out. I wasn’t tired but my legs were just heavy.”
Then McKnight passed the run Sunday morning and jumped on the bus for Cortland.
The shame of it is that McKnight worked extremely hard in the weeks after the May rookie camp and June full-squad camp and in fact ran the conditioning test in mid-July and “I just killed it.”
Head coach Rex Ryan concurred that his rookie RB passed that pretest.
“
Two weeks earlier, in 103 degrees, he actually ran the test and just blew it out of the water,” Ryan said at his midday news conference. “He’s a young man, he gets a little hyped up sometimes. He did that first minicamp — run the ball, throw up, run the ball, throw up. But this is an impressive kid now. He did some great things today. He hits the hole, he does some nice things, he catches the ball. He had a drop, too. But he’s a talent. He’s a 210-pound back not just a 180-pound guy.”
Even after sweating away some pounds this morning, McKnight might still be tipping the scales at 210. His beard is not nearly as full as Braylon Edwards’ impressive growth, but it’s getting there.
“I’ve had it like this before,” he said. “I just left it like this until I prove myself and then I’ll cut it off.”
As of now McKnight is off and running and intent on proving himself as a key contributor on the Green & White offense and special teams.
:whoosh:
