{"id":49438,"date":"2024-04-28T00:57:05","date_gmt":"2024-04-28T05:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=49438"},"modified":"2024-04-28T00:57:05","modified_gmt":"2024-04-28T05:57:05","slug":"braiden-mcgregor-signing-with-new-york-jets-as-free-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/braiden-mcgregor-signing-with-new-york-jets-as-free-agent\/","title":{"rendered":"Braiden McGregor signing with New York Jets as free agent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michigan defensive end Braiden McGregor<\/a><\/strong> overcame a lot in his four years at Michigan, including a knee injury suffered before he arrived on campus. He persevered, and now he\u2019s going to get his shot at the NFL. <\/p>\n

McGregor went undrafted in the 2024 NFL Draft but is set to sign with the New York Jets as free agent, grateful for everything he\u2019s experienced \u2026 including the bad times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the hardest thing I\u2019ve ever faced,\u201d McGregor said of the knee injury that occurred in high school. \u201cWhen it happened, I was supposed to early enroll and I was expecting spring ball and all that. As soon as I tore my knee up, I got surgery on it from a Michigan doctor. I felt like I was going to be back for spring ball. It was only going to be like six or seven months. Then COVID happened, so I only really got three or four months of rehab on my knee \u2026 it kind of set me back a little bit. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy whole freshman year was just a wash because of the setback \u2026 mentally, it was really hard. But at the end of the day, I just kept focusing with the doctors and trusting them, and I guess really just grinding at getting the knee back and learning how to run again.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he got it back, and now the 6-5, 257-pounder is ready to embark on his next journey. He set the tone in the Rose Bowl win over Alabama with an early sack, finished the season with 26 tackles (13 solo, 4.5 sacks), and gained the confidence needed to make it in the NFL.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say the biggest thing is \u2014\u00a0and I know it sounds cliche \u2014\u00a0never doubt yourself,\u201d he told Jon Jansen on the In the Trenches podcast last year. \u201cAlways bet on yourself. There\u2019s a lot of times there where I was like, \u2018I probably won\u2019t play football ever again.\u2019 I was 18 years old thinking, oh, I have all this great stuff ahead of me, and then it kind of gets stripped away quick and you have to earn it all back.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were other lessons he learned, McGregor added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it taught me to love your family and cherish every moment with them,\u201d McGregor said. \u201cWithout them, I would not have been here or playing football. Definitely, with the injury, they helped out so much, my family, just trusting people that are professionals in their job. A lot of times in school I was like, \u2018man, what are these teachers talking about?\u2019 It\u2019s the same thing that goes with doctors. They\u2019re telling me, oh, you\u2019re going to be good. [I\u2019m thinking, \u2018Man, my knee is never going to get good. It\u2019s never going to get back to where it was,\u2019 and he\u2019s telling me it\u2019s going to get back to where it was and stronger. I think that\u2019s another lesson, trust people.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did, and how he\u2019s trusting himself and others for a long NFL career.<\/p>\n\n

The post Braiden McGregor signing with New York Jets as free agent<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michigan defensive end Braiden McGregor overcame a lot in his four years at Michigan, including…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49464,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49438\/revisions\/49464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}