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Cam Little is the smallest, youngest Jacksonville Jaguar. He's also won the kicking job
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- Cam Little is the smallest, youngest Jacksonville Jaguar. He's also won the kicking job
Cam Little is the youngest Jacksonville Jaguars on the training camp roster. He isn't legally able to drink yet — not that he would, he is quick to remind people.
"I'm pretty strong in my faith," said the All-SEC kicker from Arkansas and the Jaguars' sixth-round draft pick. "I'm not a big drinker. It's never been a thing for me."
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And a party with the boys on Aug. 17, when Little turns 21, is also out of the question for another reason: it's the same day the Jaguars play a home preseason game against the Tampa Bay Bucs .
Jacksonville Jaguars rookie kicker Cam Little has won the starting job less than a week into training camp.
"Playing a football game on my birthday ... that's going to be pretty cool," he said.
Little also is the smallest Jaguar, in terms of weight. He's listed at 172 pounds, giving away 11 to the next lightest player on the team, fellow rookie De'Antre Prince, a cornerback.
But he's punched well above his weight class since rookie minicamp and only five days into training camp Little beat out Riley Patterson for the starting kicking job.
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Heath Farwell: 'We're rocking with you'
Word of Patterson's release on July 29 began circulating in the late afternoon but Little didn't know until he got a phone call from special teams coordinator Heath Farwell.
"I didn't see any of it until after he called and he said, 'man, we're rocking with you,'" said Little, who made nearly 83 percent of his field-goal attempts at Arkansas, never missed a conversion in 129 attempts and was fourth in the nation for the most touchbacks. "It was really cool to hear that."
Little and Patterson competed on an even keel in kicking periods during camp. Little made 9 of 10 attempts and Patterson 8 of 10. But when they were called on to kick at the end of a series of two-minute drill periods on July 27, Little made field-goal attempts of 47 and 54 yards (he also missed from 47 and 52 yards) and Patterson was cut two days later.
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The move had two purposes: give the rookie even more confidence and give Patterson time to latch on with another team. The Washington Commanders quickly picked him up.
Little said Patterson helped him while competing with him and all things being equal, the Jaguars went with their draft pick.
"Cool to compete with a guy like Riley," Little said. "He was really willing to help a rookie. I think that says volumes about his character, willing to help someone who got drafted."
Can Cam Little close the revolving door?
Little has responded well to getting the job. In Saturday's practice at EverBank Stadium, he made 8 of 9 attempts, including a 57-yarder.
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His final kick was a 51-yard field goal, which led to a humorous moment that coach Doug Pederson said served a purpose.
Pederson stepped in suddenly as Ross Matisick snapped the ball, and knocked it down before holder Logan Cooke could catch it. Pederson then began waving his arms to get the crowd going and after they began making some noise, he let the play go and Little banged it through for his 11th made field goal in camp in 14 attempts from 50 yards or longer.
"I tried to get the fans going ... in our minds we treated that like a game-winning field goal," Pederson explained. "He did a great job. He's done a great job."
If Little kicks in the season opener at Miami on Sept. 8, he will be the 10th kicker the Jaguars have used during the regular season since 2020, a revolving door that began spinning open when Josh Lambo was injured in Week 2 that season.
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Despite Patterson's accuracy, the Jaguars wanted a big leg and signed Brandon McManus in May of 2023. McManus began the season well but made only 7 of his last 12 field-goal attempts, inaccurate by modern NFL standards, and the Jaguars chose not to resign him. McManus then decamped for Washington.
It would have been even more of a massive headache for the team had they kept McManus, as it turned out. He is being accused of sexual misconduct by two flight attendants who worked on the team plane going to London last year. The Commanders released McManus after the suit was filed and became public.
Cam Little said he worries only about what he does
Pederson thinks his 20-year-old rookie is up to the job, now that it's his. Now it's a matter of proving it in games.
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"It's still early ... got a lot of football ahead," Pederson said. "He's done a nice job."
One thing that Pederson has done, prior to preseason games, is to put Little in pressure situations such as the stadium practice scenario. Little also has been called on for long field-goal attempts in team and kicking periods. Only four of his 31 attempts came from less than 45 yards.
"It's an opportunity for Cam to feel the pressure now ... if you're the guy, you need to be the guy," he said. "We put him in some long-kick situations the other day. We're going to continue to kind of cultivate that, put him in those tough situations and let him feel that type of pressure."
Little's answer to how he won the job was simple. While he was appreciative of Patterson's mentorship and understood that he was going against a seasoned NFL veteran who had made the Jaguars' single biggest kick in a playoff game two seasons ago, Little didn't worry so much about how many kicks he was making as opposed to how many Patterson was making.
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He was concerned mainly with meeting his own standards.
"I don't like to focus too much on what the other person is doing," he said. "I like to focus on what I'm doing. Because I think when I'm at my best, it's better than anyone else's best. You're competing against yourself. It's me versus me. So that's kind of the mindset I had kind of going out there. My best today is going to beat anyone else's best."
Holder Logan Cooke praises Little's confidence
Bold talk, one might think, from someone who has yet to kick in an NFL preseason game, let alone the regular season. But the Jaguars coaches have seen something in him. So do his teammates, and Cooke doesn't have any doubts about how Little will perform under pressure.
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He's very confident, confident in himself and not really in a bad way," Cooke said. "He trusts he's going to make every kick that he goes out and hit."
Cooke recalled the practice of July 27 when Little missed a 48-yard attempt. He then banged through back-to-back attempts of 52 and 57 yards.
"He missed one, pushed it right a good ways and his very next kick was in a team rep and he just crushed it. He hit it harder than any kick he made that day. A lot of kickers, they miss a kick and the next one they try to aim it. He just hit it as hard as he could. That kind of shows how confident he is in himself."
Jaguars veterans gently remind Little of his place
But Cooke and Matiscik don't let Little get too full of himself. While serious hazing has long since been passe´ in the NFL, Cooke and Matiscik have their ways of reminding Little of his place as a rookie. That's why you'll see Little carrying their helmet and pads in from practice, for example.
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They also go heavy on the age and size barbs. In addition to "hey, Kid," Cooke calls Little "Smalls."
The veterans also get on Little for having his nose in his cell phone, especially when they're trying to play golf or Little is next up on the team's ping-ping table.
"He's a good kid," Cooke said. "He's going to be a really good kicker."
Jacksonville Jaguars place kicker Cam Little (39) juggles a soccer ball during the third day of training camp on July 26 at the Miller Electric Center.
Of course Little could always come back by calling Cooke or Matiscik "Old Man."
But Cooke is 29 and Matiscik 27.
"Maybe when Logan turns 30 I can call him 'Old Man,'" Little said. "You can't really do that when he's only 29. But I do remind him that when he got drafted here, I was just a freshman in high school. I look around and guys have wives and kids, and I'm still just 20. But I love hanging out with them."
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And putting on his uniform and playing in a football game on the day he turns 21 will be a first for Little. He can't think of a better opportunity than to celebrate his birthday by banging a 50-yarder or two through the uprights.
"I'll enjoy the moment," he said.
And hopefully for the Jaguars, who have gone through kickers like Taylor Swift goes through wardrobe changes, the moments with Cam Little will last longer.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Jaguars kicker Cam Little won starting job before he turns 21
