Smyth’s game-winner ‘cool to see’ for fellow 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 delivering his new side a pre-season victory on Saturday.

Smyth, a former Gaelic football goalkeeper, came through the NFL’s international player pathway (IPP) programme and signed a three-year-deal with the Saints in March.

In what was his first ever kick in an NFL game of any kind, the 23-year-old hit 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 get injured during the Mayobridge man’s exuberant celebrations.

“I hope someone has the most awkward high-five I have ever received in my life [on camera],” he said. “I’m lucky I didn’t break my hand.

“He told us – I didn’t know this – a year ago he had never kicked a football. That’s something he’ll remember forever.”

Smyth is in a fight with the Saints’ incumbent kicker Blake Grupe to make the active roster ahead of the regular season starting in September.

However, should he miss out there remains the possibility he could be retained on the practice squad and potentially earn a mid-season promotion.

While Smyth’s winning effort on Saturday would be viewed as relatively routine for an NFL kicker, he was seen successfully executing from considerably greater distances during his pre-game preparations.

New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen said after the game that he would have been confident handing Smyth a more challenging effort had the final drive stalled further back up the field.

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

“But I felt good about him hitting the distance, wasn’t worried about that at all.”

Having only previously watched him work in practice, Allen was pleased by Smyth’s ability to perform in a “pressure situation” with a game on the line.

“I thought that was awesome,” he added.

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

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

Smyth was not the only player from Northern Ireland to make his NFL debut over the weekend.

Swatragh’s Jude McAtamney, another from a GAA background but who previously played college football at Rutgers, kicked an extra-point in the New York Giants’ pre-season win over the Detroit Lions on Friday night.