Florida’s Jacksonville One way to describe Jacksonville’s current kicker dilemma is that there have been two Wrights and over a dozen incorrect calls.
The Jaguars are now depending on Cam Little of Arkansas, the youngest kicker ever drafted, to end a turnover cycle and establish stability at a position that has seen some of the most volatile playmaking in the league over the last four years.
Between the beginning of the pandemic and choosing Little in the sixth round of last week’s NFL selection, Jacksonville used a whopping sixteen kickers, including unrelated Brandon and Matthew Wright. It’s an astonishingly long stretch that includes multiple injuries, multiple one-week tryouts, and a couple outright disasters.
And even though the Jaguars were one of just two teams below 80% in field goals made during that four-year period, ranking 31st in the NFL, they had not planned to select Little until Denver’s Wil Lutz broke a three-year contract in the first few hours of free agency.
Due to Lutz’s reversal of fortune, general manager Trent Baalke and head coach Doug Pederson decided to select the team’s first kicker since 2004 in the draft.
According to Pederson, “it’s a great opportunity for him.” “Having him here and seeing what he can do will be exciting.”
After seasoned kicker Josh Lambo suffered a hip injury in Week 2 of the 2020 season, the Jaguars have had a chance to evaluate a number of different kickers.
They went to Jon Brown, Chase McLaughlin, Aldrick Rosas, Stephen Hauschka, and Brandon Wright, and they set an NFL record that year for the most kickers utilized in a single season.
Under new coach Urban Meyer, Lambo, who was the NFL’s most accurate kicker from 2017 to 2020, took back the position in 2021. However, in Jacksonville’s opening three games, Lambo missed five kicks and appeared to be lacking confidence.
Three weeks later, after Matthew Wright scored two field goals from longer than fifty yards to defeat Miami in London and snap the NFL’s longest losing run (20 games) in 44 years, Baalke and Meyer benched Lambo.
When Lambo claimed that Meyer had kicked him at practice months prior and made fun of him in front of teammates, he came back into the spotlight.
He filed a lawsuit against the team for emotional distress and damage to its reputation, but it was ultimately dropped.
After banning Wright in 2022, Baalke and Pederson opened camp with rookie Andrew Mevis and Ryan Santoso vying for the position. Both did not work out.
On the fourth day, Mevis missed so severely that he struck former Dallas Cowboys coach Dave Campo in the shoulder when he was standing far away from the goalposts. A few hours later, he was sliced. Santoso’s preseason shot attempt came to an end as he missed three of his four attempts from a distance of more than fifty yards.
Before Jacksonville grabbed Riley Patterson off waivers a few days before the season start, James McCourt and Elliott Fry also received a quick look.
Less than a year passed for Patterson. When Denver released veteran Brandon McManus last spring, the team grabbed him up because they wanted a stronger leg. With McManus on board, the team’s kicking carousel appeared to come to an end.
Over the course of two months, he made 20 consecutive games, setting a franchise record. However, he missed five of the final six games as the Jaguars won the AFC South and what appeared to be a sure postseason berth in late November.
Nothing could make everyone forget their problems. After Stanford’s Joshua Karty (Los Angeles Rams) and Alabama’s Will Reichard (Minnesota), the 20-year-old Oklahoman was the third kicker selected in the sixth round.
Little boldly declared, “I’ll be honest: I killed the process.” “I completed every workout I had with every coach who was selecting a player.” I was utterly brilliant. During the entire procedure, I did not have a single negative day.
“Jacksonville recognized a quality in me that the other guys might not have.”
In college, Little hit 53 out of 64 attempts and all 129 extra points. After nailing the game-winning overtime play at LSU as a freshman, he performed the “Griddy” dance. Last year, he completed four of five passes at neighboring Florida, including a 44-yard pass in the last second to force OT and lead Arkansas to its first-ever win in Gainesville.
His greatest achievements throughout his time in college are those makes.
He’s moving on to the pros now, where there will be more stressful situations and new kickoff regulations to master. And perhaps—just possibly—he can put an end to Jacksonville’s kicking pandemonium.
“I think it’s crazy that the youngest NFL kicker ever is,” he remarked. That’s something that excites me. That is something I have worked very hard on. They won’t regret that, I can assure you of that. Jacksonville’s decision won’t be regretted.
