Zonovan Knight is running like he should be nicknamed “Blur” instead of “Bam.”
It’s a common misperception that the fast-rising Jets rookie running back earned his moniker on the football field because of a willingness to initiate contact with defenses. The truth is that its origin pre-dates even his first steps.
“The playpen that you sit babies in, I was in that beating on all the toys and my uncle walked by and was like, ‘Damn, all you hear is Bam! Bam! Bam!’ ” Knight said after Wednesday’s practice. “That was a family nickname, and when I started playing rec ball I guess that was easier to pronounce than Zonovan, so people started calling me ‘Bam.’ I put it on my high school highlights [tape] — Zonovan ‘Bam’ Knight — and it pretty much stuck.”
Shakespeare asked, “What’s in a name?” In this case, an obligation to be a power back, which Knight is happy to fulfill. But Knight also reached 19.94 mph last week during his first career start, according to Next Gen Stats, and the Jets’ GPS clocked him at a 4.39-second 40-yard split on his 48-yard run against the Vikings. He is averaging 110.5 yards from scrimmage through his first two games.
“Just pure gas,” head coach Robert Saleh said. “This time of year where legs get heavy, if you have a guy who can clock that on the GPS, it’s going to show differently. He runs with a physical mindset. When he turns a corner and sticks his foot in the ground, it’s special.”
Knight was at home surrounded by a group of family and close friends on April 30, when the final four rounds of the NFL draft were held. His name was not among the 157 announced — in part because of a deceptively slow 40-yard dash time (4.58).
“People underestimated my speed because of the NFL combine,” Knight said. “I did a lot more than I needed to in preparation for that. A lot was on the line, so I drained myself out before the 40, so a lot of people thought I was slower than I actually am.”
Together with his agent, Knight narrowed a deep field of post-draft calls and picked the Jets over the Lions, Vikings and Ravens.
“Miserable is the way to put it,” Knight said of his draft party. “I thought I was a solidified fifth-rounder, sixth round at the latest. It ended up not working out and I got in my own head. My high school coach [Brian Foster] pulled me to the side and said, ‘It doesn’t matter how you get there. It matters what you do when you get there.’ I took that to heart and have pretty much been working ever since.”
It wasn’t the first time that Foster helped Knight through adversity. Nor the last. Take an example from his freshman year at North Carolina State.
“When we went through fall camp, there was a three-day span where I fumbled every day,” Knight said. “My running backs coach started grilling me about it: ‘You have to stop!’ After practice, I was talking to my high school coach and I was contemplating quitting. He said, ‘This is not what you worked for. Fight through it. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. But you aren’t going to quit.’ I pushed through.”
So, of course, Knight, who made the Jets’ initial 53-man roster because he stood out with the third-team offense and offered a prolific college kick-returning résumé, called Foster again as the Jets season progressed. He was buried on the depth chart behind standout rookie Breece Hall, Michael Carter and Ty Johnson. When Hall suffered a season-ending injury, the Jets traded for former 1,000-yard rusher James Robinson.
Robinson’s slow post-trade acclimation opened a door for Knight’s NFL debut on Nov. 27. Carter’s knee injury led to Knight’s first start.
“I started thinking [my opportunity] might not be this year, it might be next year, and I didn’t know if I was actually going to get an opportunity here,” Knight said. “To get it, I was blessed, but I hated that it had to be under those circumstances with Breece and whatnot.”
Carter practiced in full Monday, but Knight has earned a spot in a backfield rotation Sunday against the Bills.
“He’s not going anywhere,” Saleh said.
Except maybe headed down the field in a hurry.
