When Will McDonald first walked onto a football field in 2016, he didn’t even know what the goalposts were.
“I literally didn’t know anything about football,” McDonald said. “I couldn’t tell you a tackle from a guard, anything.”
Seven years later, McDonald is the first-round pick of the New York Jets.
The edge rusher arrived in Florham Park on Friday, a few hours after the team selected him with the No. 15 overall pick.
The former Iowa State star said he was “taking it all in.”
“It’s just like an honor,” McDonald said. “I wasn’t expecting myself to be here six or seven years [ago].
Just being able to show my family and friends that there is a way to do things and there is a way to reach your goals and everything, my nieces and nephews and everybody.
I’m just able to change the course of my family, make everybody do as they please and everything that they want to do.”
McDonald has a colorful personality and talked about his hobby of jumping over cars, which has gained him fame on YouTube.
He said it started one night outside of a friend’s house over a small car and progressed to him jumping over SUVs.
Now that he is an NFL player, though, he said he is only jumping over opponents.
“The next thing I’m going to be jumping over is just tackles,” McDonald said. “I’m officially retired from jumping over cars.”
McDonald had an athletic background before he ever played football. He participated in basketball, wrestling, jujitsu and even rode a unicycle.
As a sophomore in high school in Wisconsin, the football coach saw McDonald in the hallway and convinced him to join the football team.
He was a wide receiver at first and then they discovered his pass-rushing ability. He became a star and Iowa State offered him a scholarship.
McDonald, who was working at McDonald’s to help pay his family’s bills when he started playing, said his plan was to join the Army before football came along.
“It’s just changed my life,” McDonald said. “It gave me an opportunity. I was able to change my path from going to the Army to being a No. 1 draft pick.”
After learning the game in his first few years, McDonald said the NFL became a realistic goal during his sophomore year with the Cyclones.
His brother died that same year, giving McDonald more inspiration to get his degree and then go to the NFL.
“I think that year really shaped me, especially after my brother passed away,”
McDonald said. “I just wanted to make sure that it wasn’t for nothing. I just wanted to have him see me do good.”
McDonald said he was thinking of his brother on Thursday when his life changed forever.
“I’ve got a picture of him in my wallet,” McDonald said. “I’m glad that he was able to see me get this opportunity.
I know he wasn’t here physically but I know spiritually he was here with me. I just hope that he’s still watching.”
McDonald admitted he was “a little bit” surprised when the Jets drafted him at No. 15. Most draft experts projected him as a late first-round or second-round pick.
McDonald is slender.
He weighs 240 pounds but said he is trying to get to 250 for the season.
The Jets love McDonald’s pass-rushing ability. He had 34 sacks and 10 forced fumbles at Iowa State.
McDonald credited his basketball and jujitsu background with helping him get the ball out.
“I take everything to the field,” he said. “I’m not like just out there just trying to tackle people. I’m trying to get the ball out. I’m trying to score a touchdown.”
The Jets took care of some other business before the second round of the NFL Draft started Friday, extending the contract of long snapper Thomas Hennessy.
Hennessy is the longest-tenured player on the Jets.
He joined the team in 2017 after the Jets acquired him in a trade with the Colts just before the season started.
While the rest of the roster has turned over since then, Hennessy has stuck because of his reliability.
He was entering the last year of his contract this season, but the Jets signed him to a four-year extension on Friday.