After nearly a month of training camp, the Jaguars finally have a winner in their kicking competition and the winner is no one. That’s right, nobody. Sure, someone will get the job eventually, but Tuesday morning the job didn’t belong to anyone because the Jaguars had exactly no kickers on their roster after Ryan Santoso was released on Tuesday.
That changed hours later as Jacksonville claimed James McCourt, who was cut by the Chargers on Monday. As the lone kicker on the roster, he has the inside lane to win the starting spot for Week 1.
Still, the Jaguars kicking battle, which started with three kickers, has been extremely unimpressive this year. To put into perspective how ugly things have been, a kicker (Andrew Mevis) was cut just days into training camp after an erratic day where he hit former Cowboys coach Dave Campo with an attempt errant placement, which was particularly awkward because Campo was not standing anywhere near the goal posts on the pitch.
After watching Mevis crumble, the Jaguars signed Elliott Fry in late July, but Fry left less than three weeks later due to injury. At first it looked like the Jags might try to hide Fry on injured reserve, but on August 19 they cut him from the IR with an injury settlement.
With Fry out, that left Santoso as the last standing kicker in Jacksonville. Although he was the lone kicker on the roster heading into Game 2 of the Jags’ preseason, Doug Pederson made it clear that Santoso was not a lock on the team.
“I’m still working there. We need to see more honestly,” Pederson said last week of whether Santoso would make the roster as a Jaguar kicker, via SI.com. “He understands that. It’s a shame that Elliot (Fry) got injured in the game the other day because there was great competition there in training. I thought those two would fight until the end, and we’ll see what happens here at the end.”
Santoso likely retired from his job this weekend when he missed two field goals in Jacksonville’s 16-15 loss to the Steelers, although both misses came from over 50 yards (51 , 57). Santoso had a chance to win the game on the final play, but sent his kick 57 yards to the right.
Overall, Santoso scored 3 out of 6 goals from the field during the pre-season.
Next in the Jaguars kicking competition is McCourt, who will have a golden opportunity to make his mark.
“Consistency is what you look for in kickers. It will be a good opportunity for him and then for us to continue the process,” Pederson said of McCourt. “We still have some time here before the kicks mean anything, but it will be a good opportunity for him.”
In his final two years at Illinois, McCourt was just 9 of 16 (56.25%) on field goal attempts from 40 yards, which means there’s a chance that doesn’t last long in Jacksonville.
If McCourt doesn’t work out, there aren’t many free agent options for the Jags. One possibility could be Michael Badgley, who scored 85.7% of his field goals with the Colts last season. The Jaguars could also return to Matthew Wright, who hit 21 of 24 kicks for them last season (87.5%).
The Jags could also wait to see who becomes available after cut day. The Lions and Jets are both hosting kicking competitions right now, which means there will be at least two more kickers on the market after these battles are over.
