The wait for an Irish-born player in the NFL goes on after the Jacksonville Jaguars released James McCourt from their roster on Wednesday evening. The Dublin-born former University of Illinois kicker was engaged in a position battle with Jake Verity to be the franchise’s starter but was ultimately unsuccessful in his bid to make the week one roster in Florida.
Verity was also released, the Jaguars citing injury as the reason behind the move, while Riley Patterson, formerly of the Detroit Lions, has been claimed and is now favourite to be the team’s kicker. The University of Memphis graduate saw regular season game time last year with Detroit.
Jaguars special teams coordinator Heath Farwell revealed that Patterson has been a target for the team for some time and after he was cut by Detroit, the team took the chance to bring him in at the expense of both McCourt and Verity.
“James [McCourt] had a good game, a good practice yesterday [Tuesday] and we still really like where he’s at,” said Farwell. “Jake [Verity] unfortunately wasn’t able to finish up where we wanted. Both those guys did a really good job for us but that being said, part of our job in getting this roster as good as we can is to evaluate other rosters and to see what’s available.
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“We’ve been evaluating several other kicker battles as well as other positions, to figure out if we can upgrade our roster in any way. Riley’s [Patterson] a guy that we targeted for a while, we were hoping he would become available and fortunately he did and we’re excited to have him.”
McCourt appeared to be the favourite to win the starting job after a series of successful kicks in practice, a preseason game against Atlanta and reportedly going five for six in a training session on Tuesday. The former Dartry resident impressed with his first in-game involvement in a Jaguars jersey, hitting a 54-yard field goal against the Atlanta Falcons on Saturday. He also showed off his strong leg with a reported 55-yard effort in Tuesday’s practice.
NFL teams had to slim down their rosters to 53 players by Tuesday night Irish time, with most sides opting to keep just one kicker on their squad at that stage. However, the Jaguars clearly had not decided on the kicker position and kept both Verity and McCourt on board, with head coach Doug Pederson yesterday saying their battle could continue into next week. The season opener against the Washington Commanders is on September 11th.
Yet the decision ultimately came quicker than that, the Jaguars announcing ahead of practice on Wednesday that both McCourt and Verity were no longer on the roster.
An Irish-born player has not participated in an NFL regular season game since Neil O’Donoghue played for the St Louis Cardinals in 1985.
Dan Whelan, originally from Eniskerry, was also vying to make a roster this summer but has not been picked up since the New Orelans Saints cut him in July. He was engaged in a competition for the starting punter’s job with Blake Gillickin but once the more senior man impressed, the Saints released Whelan to give him plenty of time to look for other opportunities. He remains a free agent.
