Jacksonville Jaguars kicker Cam Little delivered what would have been a record-setting play on Saturday night if he had done it in a regular-season game. But because it happened in a preseason game, it will not officially go in the record books, and it will probably be forgotten by the end of the weekend.
It does not make the play any less impressive.
Just before halftime of their game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Little drilled a 70-yard field goal that cleared the uprights with plenty of room to spare.
In a regular-season game, it would have topped the NFL record (66 yards by Justin Tucker) by four yards.
Tucker’s kick not only needed the assistance of bouncing off the crossbar to get through, but he also kicked it on turf and in a dome with perfect weather conditions.
Little made this kick on grass and outdoors with all of the weather elements.
Even though it does not count in the record books, this is still a noteworthy kick for two reasons.
For one, it gives the Jaguars’ coaching staff the confidence to know that Little has a powerful leg and is capable of hitting kicks from anywhere on the field.
It also shows just how good kicking in the NFL has become in recent years. It used to be that anything over 40 yards was a 50-50 bet, kicks over 50 were almost unheard of, and nobody would even consider anything over 60 yards.
We are now at the point where anything under 50 is expected to be made, 50-yarders should be better than 50-50 bets, and we seemingly get multiple 60-yarders per season.
Now the NFL has a guy who knows he can hit from 70 yards.
Little was Jacksonville’s sixth-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and was 27-for-29 on field goal attempts as a rookie, with a long of 59 yards. He easily topped that on Saturday.
