The pick is in: Jaguars select Arkansas K Cam Little at 212nd overall

The Jaguars’ eighth pick of the 2024 NFL Draft is kicker Cam Little. Here’s everything you need to know.

With the 212nd pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, the Jacksonville Jaguars select Cam Little, kicker, Arkansas.

Process

Jacksonville expectedly added a kicker to compete with free agent signee Joey Slye for a spot on the team’s final 53-man roster. However, the Jaguars may have been wise to wait to fill this need, even if it meant the possibility of missing out on Little.

From Eric Eager in an article titled “Need a Kicker? Don’t Draft One.” for Sumer Sports:

“The work of Riske, which has been replicated here, showed what we intuitively have been able to see for a while, that the NFL is poor at evaluating kickers coming out of college, and that’s in large part because kicker ability is difficult to discern in general. In a market where things have explicit value, like draft picks, using scarce assets to acquire something whose worth is largely a mystery is not sound.”

The Jaguars have turned the second half of the draft into a fast pass to undrafted free agency; Little, Keirlan Robinson, and Jordan Jefferson were all commonly projected seventh-rounders or priority UDFAs.

It’s not like there’s many project-type-prospects-who-could-start-at-a-premium-position-one-day even available, and the Jaguars did take two big swings in Brian Thomas Jr. and Maason Smith, so it makes sense to draft a bit more conservatively after those picks.

Still, I probably would’ve opted to throw a dart at some EDGE prospect and find a kicker I liked on Sunday. Alas. It looks like Yasir Abdullah and Trevis Gipson (1 combined sack last year) will enter the 2024 season as Jacksonville’s top backups behind Josh Allen and Travon Walker.

Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images

Background

• Name: Cameron Little
• Consensus ranking: 222nd (K3)
• Year: Junior
• Age: Turns 21 on August 17th
• Hometown: Moore, Okla.
• High school: Southmoore
• Recruiting: 3 stars
• Instagram: @cameronglittle
• Twitter: @cameronglittle
• Accolades: SEC All-Freshman Team (2021); First-team All-SEC kickoff specialist (2023)

Consensus rankings via NFL Mock Draft Database; recruiting info via 247 Sports

Stats

Measurables

• Height: 6’ 1”
• Weight: 172 lbs
• Arm length: 30 ½”
• Wingspan: 73 ⅝”
• Hand size: 9 ¼”

Analysis

Prospect overview from Lance Zierlein of NFL.com:

Little generates good velocity into the ball and hits it with consistency. He will leave some kicks out to the right on misses, but you won’t see dead pulls. He has the leg strength for the league and just needs to become more automatic on kicks from 40-49 yards out.

Positional rankings from B.J. Monacelli of SB Nation:

Little made 53/64 (82.8%) of field goals in his career. His career long is 56 yards and he showed solid accuracy from 50-plus yards going 7/11 (63.6%) over his career. Little could use some more consistency from 40-49 yards, going only 12/17 (70.6%) in his career, which would have ranked close to the bottom of the NFL last season. He only allowed eight kickoff returns in 2023. Little should hear his name called before the 2024 draft is over.

Quotes

[coming soon]

Read more rookie quotes here

Jaguars fans, let us know your initial thoughts in the comments below!