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Jacksonville Jaguars coaches, players remain confident in embattled kicker Cam Little
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- Jacksonville Jaguars coaches, players remain confident in embattled kicker Cam Little
In times of adversity, you can go home again.
That's exactly what Jacksonville Jaguars kicker Cam Little did during the team's bye week.
Little went home to Moore, Okla., a suburb of Oklahoma City, and went to a grass field at his high school, Southmoore, on two mornings with his father Todd.
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Little said it was their routine when he was a young soccer player who decided he wanted to go out for the Southmoore team as a kicker. They'd go to the field with a bag of balls, the father holding and the son kicking.
Then they'd gather the balls and do it again. And again.
Jacksonville Jaguars kicker Cam Little (39) misses a field goal during the second quarter in an NFL football game at EverBank Stadium, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, in Jacksonville, Fla. [Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union]
"Just like old times," Little said. "When I first decided to start kicking, my dad and I would go out and practice like that. I didn't want to lose the feel of the ball on my foot."
And then Little got to the real reason.
"I guess you could call it getting back to my roots," he said.
His father offered Little a word of advice to take back to Jacksonville with him.
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"He told me that it's never as bad as it seems," Little said.
Cam Little has struggled in last two games
One of the few bright spots on the team last year as a rookie, Little has slumped in 2025. When he missed two 50-yard field-goal attempts in each of the Jaguars ' last two games (both losses), he became one of only six NFL kickers to miss four — a year after he made 27 of 29 and ended the season with 10 in a row.
Little extended that streak to 17 in a row in the first three games before his first miss of the season, from 47 yards out, against San Francisco . When he made a pressure-packed 52-yarder on Monday night against Kansas City a week later in the Jaguars' 31-28 victory , that lapse was all but forgotten.
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Then came the home game against Seattle . The Jaguars scored first but Little missed his first conversion attempt in six years, as a pro, in three years of college at Arkansas and his senior year at Southmoore, breaking a streak of 194 in a row.
Little then missed a 50-yard field goal attempt and Jaguars coach Liam Coen opted to go for two points when the Jaguars scored next to cut the Seahawks ' lead to 20-12, even though there were 13 minutes left in the game.
Liam Coen says he still has faith in Cam Little
Little missed another 50-yard attempt in London in a 35-7 loss to the Rams , the first time in his life, he said, that he has missed two in a row.
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Coen went for it on fourth down six times in that game, making only two. On the four times the Jaguars lost the ball on downs, Coen passed on field-goal attempts of 28, 31, 44 and 47 yards — chip shots for Little last season.
Jacksonville Jaguars place kicker Cam Little (39) is congratulated by his team for a 70-yard field goal during the second quarter of an NFL preseason matchup at EverBank Stadium, Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025 in Jacksonville, Fla.
One theory is Coen wanted as many points as possible after trailing 21-0 at halftime.
Another might be that he lost confidence in Little.
Coen said he had not. Little believes him.
"I've got a lot of confidence in Cam ... still. I do," Coen said a day after the game. "He's not going anywhere and we're not going to do anything with it. He takes so much accountability and so he's going to kick his way out of this thing, and he is going to make some big kicks for us this year."
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Little said he roots for the Jaguars to score as many points as possible, whether he's involved or not.
"I think Liam makes the decisions based on what's best for the team," Little said. "He felt comfortable that our offense was going to be able to get it on fourth down. Any time we go for it on fourth down, I trust our offense to get that first down."
Heath Farwell has counseled Little about slumps
Special teams coordinator Heath Farwell and punter Logan Cooke , who has been Little's holder on every conversion and field-goal attempt, also said they still have confidence in Little.
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"We would obviously love to have some of those kicks back ... [but] we love him here ... we love what he's done," Farwell said. "Cam strikes the ball as good as anybody in the league. This is part of the process as a young kicker. You hate to see it happen, this little rough patch but I told him, 'You're going to have three or four of these probably, over the course of your 15-year career. So, this is how we're going to manage it, this is how we're going to work through it,' and we're going to work through it with him."
Jacksonville Jaguars Special Teams Coordinator Heath Farwell coaches during the Jaguar’s 12th NFL training camp session at the Miller Electric Center, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Jacksonville, Fla. [Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union]
Cooke was more direct.
"He's a dog ... he's super-confident," Cooke said of Little. "He'll be back."
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Ex-Jaguar kickers all over the NFL
The Jaguars coaching staff doesn't want to have a knee-jerk reaction to Little missing four field-goal attempts and a conversion — especially since none of the misses have cost them a game.
Indeed, the NFL is littered with ex-Jaguars kickers given up by previous coaching staffs. Chase McLaughlin is at Tampa Bay, Jason Myers at Seattle , Riley Patterson at Miami and Brandon McManus at Green Bay.
Joey Slye , who is at Tennessee , spent the spring of 2024 with the Jaguars but was let go after minicamp when Little impressed immediately after he was drafted in the sixth round.
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Farwell said the intention is to work with Little to overcome his slump.
"We coach them up. We work with them. We help them. We love them up and get them better at whatever position that is," he said. "That's [cutting Little loose too early] not going to happen here. I think he's a guy that takes as much accountability on himself as anybody ... the work ethic he has ... he's going to be great. I'm excited to watch him on Sunday. He's going to help us win a ton of games this year. He's a big part of what we're going to do for the next bunch of years here in Jacksonville."
Have Jaguars special teams declined?
Little's issues have cropped up at the same time as other nagging doubts about the Jaguars' special teams.
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Cooke, who in 2024 was second in net punting average (44.8 yards) and fourth in kicks nailed inside the 20 (34), is eighth in net punting so far this season, and tied for 16th with 10 punts inside the 20.
Jacksonville Jaguars punter Logan Cooke (9) punts during the first quarter of an NFL football matchup at EverBank Stadium, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025, in Jacksonville, Fla. The Jacksonville Jaguars edged the Kansas City Chiefs 31-28. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union]
The Jaguars also lost some key special teams players when Coen and general manager James Gladstone made personnel decisions related to depth on offense and defense. Safety Daniel Thomas , wide receiver Tim Jones, tight end Josiah Deguara and linebackers Caleb Johnson and Chad Muma were either not re-signed or cut (although Jones has been brought back to the practice squad).
Eight players with the most special teams snaps are new to the team, including rookies LeQuint Allen Jr., Rayuan Lane III , Jack Kiser , Danny Striggow and B.J. Green II .
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Farwell has shuffled kickoff returners to find the right combination, with five players returning kicks, and a 25.3 return average that ranks tied for 19th in the NFL.
Heath Farwell remains optimistic
The good news is that the Jaguars have not allowed a return touchdown or a blocked kick (Cooke has had only one punt blocked in eight seasons). Parker Washington broke an 87-yard punt return for a touchdown against San Francisco and had a 62-yard return for a score against the Rams nullified by a phantom penalty on Jarrian Jones .
Despite the perception that Cooke is struggling, the Jaguars are third in the NFL in punt return defense, allowing only 14 returns for an average of 4.4 yards. He remains the NFL's career leader in net punting at 43.5 yards.
Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Parker Washington (11) celebrates his touchdown with wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. (7), tight end Hunter Long (84) and guard Ezra Cleveland (76) during the second quarter of an NFL football matchup at EverBank Stadium, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025, in Jacksonville, Fla. The Jacksonville Jaguars edged the Kansas City Chiefs 31-28. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union]
Lane has turned into a special-teams force as a gunner on punt coverage, with eight special-teams tackles. He's only one away from Caleb Johnson's team lead of nine last season.
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"He's an animal on Sundays," Farwell said of the normally mild-mannered Naval Academy graduate. "The guy we see in the meeting rooms, the guy we see out here, in the halls and on the practice field is not the same guy that we get out on the game. He plays at a motor, a relentless effort and speed that you don't see a lot of players play with. He's having an unbelievable year and he's a special player."
Farwell remains bullish on Cooke.
"He'd [Cooke] probably love to have a few of those punts back ...that's part of part of football," Farwell said. "I think the best part is we've got a lot of season left. At the end of the day, we're all going to get better as this season goes on. Logan will be fine. We'll keep covering for him."
Cooke said some shanked or short punts — a 27-yarder on his first attempt against the Rams comes to mind – are a result of trying to be too "aggressive."
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"The way I punt is very aggressive," he said. "I play the sideline game a lot and play keep away with the returner. But if you play the sideline game and you hit it a little bit left, well, now it's 10 rows deep. I'm an aggressive player and there's benefits and there's negatives."
Cooke does have a way of rallying. He followed that first kick versus the Rams with a 60-yarder to the LA 8 and a 36-yarder that was fair-caught at the 9. Cooke followed two kicks of 40 and 43 yards into the end zone against the 49ers with a fourth-quarter punt of 58 yards to the 49ers' 8.
"Thee's been some games where I've had one bad play and everything else was good," Cooke said. "This week I'll try to simplify things and just feel the ball coming off my foot."
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Jaguars Cam Little returned to roots to escape his slump
