It wasn't a childhood dream of his, but making an NFL roster has been a driving force in Jacob Rogers' life the past few years. Now, Rogers is a member of the New Orleans Saints, trying his placekicking skills on the professional level. In training camp, Rogers is competing with the Saints' current kicker Garrett Hartley, who signed a five-year, $10.3 million contract in March. Regardless, Rogers is going into camp with a chance to not only catch the attention of his own coaches, but also the attention of coaches from other teams. "Garrett Hartley is their guy, but I'll be trying," Rogers said Thursday night in a phone call from Metairie, La. "It's like the team's punter (Thomas Morstead) said, 'No matter what happens, there's 31 other teams watching you. Once preseason opens, there's a ton of opportunities because there's film on you. Even in practice, there's film of you.'" The Saints opened training camp Thursday, focusing mostly on conditioning, with a non-padded practice scheduled for today. Their first preseason game is Aug. 12 at home against the San Francisco 49ers. While spending time around people like Drew Brees, Jonathan Vilma and Marques Coltson will be nice for the Winona Lake native, it wasn't something he was considering while he was attending Warsaw Community High School. After setting scoring records on the soccer field for the Warsaw Tigers during his freshman to junior seasons, Rogers combined placekicking on the football team to his fall duties as a senior. Playing both sports, Rogers let it be known that he could be pretty good on the football field, setting set school records in PATs and field goals, while also converting a school record 51-yard field goal at Concord in a 32-21 win during the 2005 regular season finale. Following graduation, he walked on at the University of Cincinnati, where he redshirted his first season there, but went on to make his mark the next season, earning a scholarship. After his initial season, Rogers' redshirt-freshman season was highlighted by a made 55-yard field goal, which was the school's second longest and a field record at Nippert Stadium. Along with that, he made 51 of 54 PATs and 11 of 19 field goals, including 9 of 12 inside 40 yards. As a sophomore, Rogers was named a Lou Groza Award semifinalist, making 16 of 22 field goals and hitting a 54-yarder. He opened the season by making his first 11 attempts, and when combined with his last two makes of his redshirt-freshman season, he tied Cincinnati's consecutive-made field goals record with 13. It was during that season that Rogers began to become more comfortable with his duties and began to believe the NFL may be in his future. "The NFL didn't come into my mind until I went to Cincinnati," Rogers said. "Once I did get the starting job, the competitive side in me came out and I hated not to be No. 1. "I made the 55-yard field goal early on, but I still needed to improve on my accuracy," he added. "By after my sophomore season, I really began to believe I could make it to the NFL. I wasn't nervous anymore." Playing two more seasons with the Cincinnati Bearcats, Rogers finished with 288 points, 27 points shy of Jonathan Ruffin's record of 315. Rogers did leave with a school record in extra points and was also named the Big East Special Teams Player of the Week twice. Once he did leave college, Rogers found himself in a draft that took place during an NFL lockout. After a lot of negotiating, the lockout ended Tuesday, and a free agent bonanza got under way with Rogers being a part of it. "On Tuesday, I got a call from my agent (Don Henderson) saying the (Buffalo) Bills were interested, but they ended up backing out," Rogers said. "That first call came at about 10 a.m. and I didn't get another call until 8 p.m. When that call came, he told me I needed to get on a plane to New Orleans. I was pretty excited about it." Rogers said he thought more offers may have come his way, but he wasn't getting greedy. "I was happy to get this one opportunity," he said. "It may not be the spot I stay at, but it's a jumping off point." And once he did get a call saying he was with a team, it was him that began making the calls. The only problem was, there wasn't anyone there to answer them. "At first, I called my mom," Rogers said. "No one was there, so I called my brother, and there was no answer there either. Then, I called my dad, and still nothing. Eventually, my mom called back." And once the calls starting coming, they weren't just from family members. "I've talked to a lot of family and friends," he said. "Everyone's being real supportive." With their support and his confidence, Rogers is optimistic he can make the best of the opportunity that lies ahead of him. "The way I look at it, I have nothing to lose," he said. "I just have everything to gain. There's no point in getting nervous or over-excited. As a kicker, if you get those things in your head, things don't go right. I'm going to do the best I can and enjoy it. It's fun and it's a starting point of where I want to go."
