Former Iowa State Kicker Cut by Jaguars After Missed FG Hits Coach
The Jacksonville Jaguars have plenty of holes to fill on their roster, and it appears as if the kicker position won't be filled by a former Iowa State player after all.
Signed as an undrafted free agent following the 2022 NFL Draft, former Cyclone Andrew Mevis was waived by the Jaguars last week. Mevis only lasted four days into Jaguars training camp following reports of a "disastrous start." Individuals present at the Jags' training camp described his kicks as "coming up short" or going too wide.
One of Mevis' errant kicks has been making the rounds, as it hit former Dallas Cowboys head coach Dave Campo in the shoulder. Campo does commentary for a local radio station and was on the sidelines during kicking drills.
Mevis spent four years at Fordham before transferring to Iowa State for the 2021 season. Despite a short tenure at Iowa State, Mevis had one of the best seasons for a kicker in school history. He made 20-of-23 field goals and was perfect on 32 PATs. He also tied the school record for field goals made in a season (20) while his field goal percentage (87.0) is the second best in school history.
After waiving Mevis, the Jaguars signed kicker Elliott Fry, proving that this might not be the end for Mevis' professional football career. Kickers typically get several chances in the league due to the importance of the position. Fry, for example, was perfect on field goal attempts with the short-lived Orlando Apollos of the Alliance of American Football (AAF). He has since parlayed that into trying out/kicking for nine different NFL teams, including the Jaguars.
No better example of kickers having nine lives is Cody Parkey, who is infamous for "double doinking" the Chicago Bears out of the playoffs in 2019 after managing to hit the upright and the crossbar on a game-winning field goal attempt. Parkey went on to kick for the Tennessee Titans and Cleveland Browns in subsequent years.
But Mevis getting cut so early into training camp underscores Jacksonville's many problems heading into the 2022 season. The team is coming off a horrific year marred in scandals and controversy revolving around their former head coach Urban Meyer. Furthermore, last year, the Jaguars started 0-5, extending their 15-game losing streak from the previous season to 20 games, the third longest in the NFL. They finished the season 3-14, dead last in the league.
One can hope Mevis gets another shot to prove himself. But accidentally kicking a ball into the shoulder of a former NFL coach doesn't provide the kind of optics that make such second chances come easy.