The Jacksonville Jaguars are dealing with several issues heading into their BYE. One they probably didn't expect to be dealing with is at kicker. After all, Cam Little brought stability to the position last year. However, he's going through a rough stretch in his sophomore campaign, having already missed more attempts than in 2024.
But despite Little's struggles, the latest coming in the loss to the Los Angeles Rams, the Jags aren't giving up on him. Quite the contrary.
The Jaguars still trust Cam Little despite his recent struggles
One day after the 35-7 loss to the Rams, head coach Liam Coen says the Jags aren't planning on making any moves at kicker, noting that the team is still confident Cam Little can get the job done. Here's the skinny.
"No, Got a lot of confidence in Cam. Still I do. I really. I just talked to Cam. He was in here today, he's not going anywhere, and we're not doing anything with it," Coen said when asked about whether the team would bring in a kicker to try out (6:49 mark). "He's going to get away from this thing for a few days and go reset. The good, the bad, the ugly, whatever it is, we're starting fresh when we get back in here, we have to, got a lot of confidence in the guy. I do. He's very talented."
Coen continued, "And look, when you walk him out there, obviously a guy that was struggling a little, right? And then you'd love for the first attempt in the game to maybe be like a 30-yarder, 'Alright, here we go. I'm good.' Well, you know, he shows out there in a 21-nothing game where you're struggling to find points, you want to just see points on the board for morale, and you walk them out there for a 50-yarder. And what you know, Wembley in a game that not much is going right."
"So it's hard to sit there and say, Man, we've lost kind. Hey, timing and cert. He's got, he knows he's gotta make these kicks. He takes so much accountability, and so he's going to kick his way out of this thing, and he's going to make some big kicks for us this year."
A sixth-round pick in 2024, Little was 27-of-29 as a rookie and nailed five of six attempts from 50 yards out. However, he's not been nearly as accurate this season, going 10-of-14 thus far.
The Jaguars expect Cam Little to bounce back
That the Jaguars aren't planning to bring in a kicker shows just how much they trust Cam Little. After all, the team's brass hasn't been afraid to either make players compete or move on from underachievers.
The reasonable approach would be to bring in a kicker to compete with Little, make him earn his job. Then again, the Jags are taking a different route, and two things can happen. Either he'll repay the trust or he won't. And if he doesn't, the team won't have a safety net.
The good news is that Cam Little has time to turn things around during the BYE, but if he doesn't, the Jaguars need to reconsider the approach.