JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, everyone in the expansive NFL galaxy loves Pot Roast. "I guess," said Broncos defensive tackle Terrance "Pot Roast" Knighton. "It's crazy what one sack can do."

Until this season, Knighton knew losing. As a freshman at Temple, the Owls went 0-11. Then came the NFL and the Jacksonville Jaguars. In his final year there, the Jags went 2-14. In the six years in between — the last three years at Temple and first three years in Jacksonville — Knighton's team didn't post a winning record.

"You kind of get used to it after a while," said Rochelle Knighton, Terrance's mom, laughing incredulously at the thought.

Look at Knighton now. Sports Illustrated is picking the Broncos to beat the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl on Sunday in part because the magazine's senior NFL writer, Peter King, is smitten with the defensive tackle nicknamed Pot Roast.

This 330-pound star was born in recent weeks. Knighton is slimmed down from the 345 pounds he carried into Denver when he signed a two-year contract as a free agent last March. And to think Knighton was benched for most of last season.

"As a coach, we spend a lot of time trying to define players," said Broncos coach John Fox. "Basically, our approach is, 'Don't let us define you. You are going to be held accountable. It is going to be based on your performance, where you are on the depth chart, how much you are going to play. All of those things, you earn or don't earn.'

"In Terrance's case, he worked very hard. ... He lost 30 pounds. He changed his physical look as far as his body content with our strength and conditioning people. Really, everything Terrance has done, he did. You can have all kinds of talks. You can talk until you are blue in the face. But until you start seeing actions, they basically make that decision."

The sack Knighton spoke about came in the AFC championship game last week against New England left guard Logan Mankins. The Patriots went for it on fourth-and-3 from the Broncos' 29 late in the third quarter. Mankins is the Patriots' best blocker, but before the play, Knighton had set up him with repeated power moves.

Knighton beat the off-balance Mankins with a finesse "swim" maneuver to tackle quarterback Tom Brady.

"He was expecting me to power him again," Knighton said in the lobby of the Broncos' Super Bowl hotel. Suddenly, a replay of Knighton's sack was playing on a TV screen behind the young lady at the front desk. Knighton looked at the play, and continued his explanation. "He lunged at me, and I caught his hands. I knew I would beat him."

"Father to his brothers"

Born on the Fourth of July and raised in the inner city of Hartford, Conn., Knighton, 27, is the oldest of four brothers. Joaquann, 23, works for United Airlines. Malquann, 20, is in the Navy. Jaden, 6, was adopted at 8 months old because he stole Rochelle's heart while she worked in child welfare, a job she still has today.

"He was like Papa Bear," Ken Smith, Windsor (Conn.) High School's legendary basketball coach, said of Knighton. "He was a father to his brothers. Rochelle did a heck of a job bringing him up. Teaching him morals. He never got in trouble."

This is Terrance Knighton's family. He is not married. Has no children. Rochelle said Terrance was more like an "uncle figure" to his younger brothers than a father figure, because he was not stern, as dads can be. More encouraging, like uncles. But he was always mature for his age, and not just physically.

"I think it was something where he and I grew up together, although I was the mom," Rochelle said. "I was young. So we had that open relationship. But he knew his boundaries."

Knighton was more of a natural in basketball than in football, Smith said.

"He could dunk off the (standing) vertical (jump)," Smith said. "He was our center, but I could have played him at point guard. He could move. He could handle the ball. He was a great passer. Really saw the floor well. But we used him inside. He had that rump. We used to tease him: 'You can put a tray on there and eat off it.' "

The rump helped Knighton play center despite being just 6-foot-3. Those quick, nimble feet served Knighton well as a defensive tackle. And it was on a flight during his rookie year that all those roasts on his rump became "Pot Roast."

"It was late and it was dark in the plane, and most everybody was asleep and the stewardess kept saying, 'Pot roast, pot roast,' " Knighton said. "I raised my hand as if I was pot roast."

Clint Ingram, his teammate sitting behind him, was not asleep. The nickname stuck.

Close call with eyesight

Trouble did once find Knighton. It was Mother's Day weekend, 2012 when a fight involving one of his friends broke out at a Jacksonville, Fla., nightclub.

"He slipped on the ground, I picked him up off the ground and a bottle hit the ground next to me," Knighton said.

Shards pierced his eyeball, lacerating his cornea. He wound up with 22 stitches in his eye, and a medical staffer said "I would never see again," Knighton said. "I would have a glass eye."

Luckily, he woke in that hospital one morning and could see small spots of light. That meant his football playing days weren't finished. His vision would return.

His starting days with the Jaguars, though, were numbered.

"I think what happened to my eye at that bar, it gave coach Mike Mularkey a bad first impression," Knighton said. "I don't think he liked me very much. For some reason, I absorbed the D-line leadership role. Guys just gravitated to me. I don't think he wanted me to be the leader of the group."

Knighton has been leading all his life, starting with his brothers. But he responds to people of influence who strongly believe him. Coach Smith. Then Temple coach Al Golden. And Broncos defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio, who, while serving as Jacksonville's head coach, was part of the process that selected Knighton in the third round of the 2009 draft.

"He was part of it, but more so I wanted to be on a winning team," Knighton said when asked if Del Rio was the reason he signed with the Broncos last year. "I wanted to be around good players. I haven't had a winning season playing football since high school."

And now, as at Windsor, Knighton is a star again.

"It's sunk in in some ways, and it hasn't sunk in," Rochelle said. "I was telling someone today I was nervous as to how I would handle it if they did win. And if they lose, how would I comfort or what would I say to him. He hasn't really changed to me. He's still Terrance."