Smyth game winner is ‘cool to see’ for other Saints

New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr says Charlie Smyth’s first NFL field goal is something the County Down kicker can “remember forever” after handing his new team a pre-season victory on Saturday .

Smyth, a former Gaelic football goalkeeper, went through the NFL’s International Player Path (IPP) program and signed a three-year contract with the Saints in March.

In what was his first kick in an NFL game of any kind, the 23-year-old connected on a 37-yard field goal with time expiring to beat the Arizona Cardinals 16-14.

Carr, a four-time Pro Bowler, joked he was lucky not to be injured during the Mayobridge man’s exuberant celebrations.

“I hope someone gives me the weirdest high-five I’ve ever received in my life. [on camera]” he said. “I was lucky I didn’t break my hand.

“He told us – I didn’t know this – a year ago that he had never kicked a football. This is something he will remember forever.”

Smyth is in a fight with current Saints kicker Blake Grupe to make the active roster ahead of the regular season that begins in September.

However, should he miss out on the opportunity, the possibility remains that he could be kept on the training squad and potentially earn a mid-season promotion.

‘I felt good about him going the distance’

Although Smyth’s game-winning attempt on Saturday was viewed as relatively routine for an NFL kicker, he was seen executing successfully at considerably greater distances during his pregame preparations.

New Orleans Saints coach Dennis Allen said after the game that he would have been confident in handing Smyth a more challenging effort if the final drive had stopped further down the field.

“We would have shot from, I don’t know, sixty. You know? Depending on how much time was left in the game and whether I thought it was down and distance, what the percentages were,” he said. .

“But I felt good that he made it the distance, I wasn’t worried about it at all.”

Having only seen his work in training previously, Allen was pleased with Smyth’s ability to perform in a “pressure situation” with a game on the line.

“I thought that was incredible,” he added.

“First kick, not in an NFL game, a football game, in a football game. For him to hit like that in a pressure situation, it was cool to see.”

The Saints’ pre-season continues against the San Francisco 49ers at 01:00 BST on Monday 19 August, preparing for their first competitive action of the 2024 campaign against the Carolina Panthers on 8 September.

Smyth wasn’t the only Northern Ireland player to make his NFL debut over the weekend.

Swatragh’s Jude McAtamney, another with a GAA background but who previously played college football at Rutgers, scored an extra point in the New York Giants’ preseason victory over the Detroit Lions on Friday night.