Doug Pederson Says ‘Not Yet’ on Internal Competition for Jaguars’ Kicker Riley Patterson

After three missed kicks in two weeks, the Jaguars aren't ready to pull the plug yet on Riley Patterson.

With the Jacksonville Jaguars entering their bye week at 3-7, there is plenty of room for improvement and potential changes.

Could one come at kicker after recent struggles from Riley Patterson? Potentially, though it doesn't appear it will come internally from practice squad James McCourt.

“Not yet," Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said on Monday when asked if McCourt could push for Patterson's spot. 

"During the week of practice on Wednesdays and Thursdays we let both guys kick, so there’s a little bit of competition there."

The last two weeks have been ugly for Patterson, who went 11-of-12 on field goals in the first eight games. Over the last two weeks, however, Patterson has gone just 3-of-6, leaving nine points on the board. 

“I will take a look at it, but he just missed two kicks. You can’t give up points. These are the missed opportunities that we are talking about," Pederson said on Sunday. 

This included a missed 41-yard and 51-yard field goal in Sunday's 27-17 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, one of which came at the end of the half after an unlikely fumble recovery on a kick-off.

"It’s unfortunate, again as I talked after the game, those are missed opportunities that we’ve just got to have, especially against good teams," Pederson said on Monday. 

"You’ve got to hit those balls through the uprights. He knows that. He understands that, but no competition right now.”

McCourt was 2-of-2 on field goals vs. the Falcons in the preseason finale and only missed one kick in his handful of practices with the Jaguars before Week 1, but both he and Jake Verity were waived to make room for Patterson, who the Jaguars claimed on waivers after he was waived by the Detroit Lions.

"James did everything right, it’s not about that," Pederson said at the start of the season.

"It’s that we’re still trying to find the right guy for that spot, and Patterson was one of the guys that back in the spring that we had liked and considered and followed his career a little bit, so when he became available, we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. "We’re always going to be looking for the best guys and create some competition, so it will be a good opportunity for him.”

Patterson is the seventh kicker the Jaguars have rostered in the span between Week 18 last year and Week 1 this year, following Matthew Wright, Andrew Mevis, Elliott Fry, Ryan Santoso, McCourt, and Verity.

“He’s another one that’s kind of feeling where we are with the season. I’ll say that it’s not one hundred percent, let me put it that way," Pederson said about McCourt's practice reps on Monday.