Doug Pederson Explains Why the Jaguars Waived Riley Patterson

The Jaguars are moving forward with rookie kicker Cam Little.

Jacksonville Jaguars place kicker Riley Patterson (38) works on his kicking during the fourth day of the NFL football training camp practice session Saturday, July 27, 2024 at EverBank Stadium's Miller Electric Center in Jacksonville, Fla. / Bob Self/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Jacksonville Jaguars put an early end to one of their biggest training camp battles earlier this week, waiving veteran kicker Riley Patterson and essentially awarding the job to rookie kicker Cam Little.

And when explaining the decision, it appears the Jaguars made it for two reasons: to let Little start to feel the responsibility of starting, and to also do right by Patterson and give him another chance to latch onto a team early in camp. Patterson was claimed by the Washington Commanders after being waived by the Jaguars.

"We know Riley and he's made some big kicks here for us, obviously, and it's an opportunity for him to catch on now with another team and it's an opportunity for Cam to feel the pressure now of if you're the guy, you need to be the guy," Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said on Friday.

"Cam's done a nice job. I think he was 10-of-11 the other day and 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. But it's an opportunity now for Riley to get picked up and continue his career.”

Little is the third kicker the Jaguars have drafted in franchise history following Hayden Epstein in the seventh round of the 2002 NFL Draft and Josh Scobee in the fifth round of the 2004 NFL Draft.

Little was named 2021 SEC All-Freshman Team and 2023 First-Team All-SEC after a career that saw him finish as the most accurate kicker in program history with a 82.8% field goal percentage and a 100% extra point rate.

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