FORMER WALES RUGBY star Louis Rees-Zammit will continue his NFL journey with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Rees-Zammit, 23, has officially been signed to the Jags’ practice squad, similar to Irish kickers Charlie Smyth and Jude McAtamney who have earned backdoor opportunities with the New Orleans Saints and New York Giants respectively.
Like former Down senior goalkeeper Smyth and former Derry U20 free-taker McAtamney, Rees-Zammit entered the NFL’s International Player Pathway (IPP) program in January in pursuit of a career switch to American football.
Rees-Zammit, who had scored 14 tries in 32 tests for Wales and also featured for the Lions on their 2021 tour of South Africa, went on to sign with the Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs in March.
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Rees-Zammit performed predominantly as a running back and kick returner during pre-season, showing glimpses of his athleticism throughout, but he was cut by the Chiefs ahead of Tuesday’s deadline for all franchises to reduce their rosters to 53 players.
This meant that Rees-Zammit entered the league’s ‘waiver’ process, in which he was free to be signed to any of the other 31 franchises’ 53-man roster for 24 hours. Were Rees-Zammit to remain unsigned after that 24-hour period, the Chiefs could sign him to their practice squad, which is effectively a smaller group of development players who train alongside a club’s first team.
Similarly to Smyth and McAtamney, no franchise took the risk of handing a valuable roster slot to a player of Rees-Zammit’s inexperience, and so the former rugby wing fell back to the Chiefs who had first preference on adding him to their practice squad.
However, whereas Smyth and McAtamney landed back onto the practice squads of their original teams, the Chiefs had less wiggle room when it came to Rees-Zammit.
Each NFL franchise is permitted to add one additional international player to its 16-man practice squad, and so Smyth and McAtamney have been effectively been recruited as their respective clubs’ 17th development player. The Chiefs, however, were already using their international exemption on Nigerian second-year offensive tackle Chukwuebuka Godrick.
The Super Bowl champions opted to retain Godrick, meaning Rees-Zammit was squeezed out and became an unrestricted free agent.
This meant that any other team could sign the Welshman not only to their first-team roster, but to their practice squad for further development.
The Jaguars’ international practice-squad player, former Aussie rules footballer Patrick Murtagh, suffered a season-ending ankle break earlier this month and so they opted to recruit Rees-Zammit as their 17th man in his absence.
A typical practice-squad player can be elevated at any point during the season to a club’s 53-man roster or even directly into a matchday squad where required.
As effectively additional players, however, international recruits such as Rees-Zammit, Smyth and McAtamney are permitted to feature in only three matchday squads as practice-squad players. A fourth match appearance would require their upgrading to a club’s 53-man roster.
Rees-Zammit could yet return to the field in Britain this season: the Jaguars play the Chicago Bears at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 13 October and then face the New England Patriots at Wembley on 20 October.
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Former rugby star Rees-Zammit gets new NFL opportunity as he joins Jaguars' practice squad
FORMER WALES RUGBY star Louis Rees-Zammit will continue his NFL journey with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Rees-Zammit, 23, has officially been signed to the Jags’ practice squad, similar to Irish kickers Charlie Smyth and Jude McAtamney who have earned backdoor opportunities with the New Orleans Saints and New York Giants respectively.
Like former Down senior goalkeeper Smyth and former Derry U20 free-taker McAtamney, Rees-Zammit entered the NFL’s International Player Pathway (IPP) program in January in pursuit of a career switch to American football.
Rees-Zammit, who had scored 14 tries in 32 tests for Wales and also featured for the Lions on their 2021 tour of South Africa, went on to sign with the Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs in March.
Rees-Zammit performed predominantly as a running back and kick returner during pre-season, showing glimpses of his athleticism throughout, but he was cut by the Chiefs ahead of Tuesday’s deadline for all franchises to reduce their rosters to 53 players.
This meant that Rees-Zammit entered the league’s ‘waiver’ process, in which he was free to be signed to any of the other 31 franchises’ 53-man roster for 24 hours. Were Rees-Zammit to remain unsigned after that 24-hour period, the Chiefs could sign him to their practice squad, which is effectively a smaller group of development players who train alongside a club’s first team.
Similarly to Smyth and McAtamney, no franchise took the risk of handing a valuable roster slot to a player of Rees-Zammit’s inexperience, and so the former rugby wing fell back to the Chiefs who had first preference on adding him to their practice squad.
However, whereas Smyth and McAtamney landed back onto the practice squads of their original teams, the Chiefs had less wiggle room when it came to Rees-Zammit.
Each NFL franchise is permitted to add one additional international player to its 16-man practice squad, and so Smyth and McAtamney have been effectively been recruited as their respective clubs’ 17th development player. The Chiefs, however, were already using their international exemption on Nigerian second-year offensive tackle Chukwuebuka Godrick.
The Super Bowl champions opted to retain Godrick, meaning Rees-Zammit was squeezed out and became an unrestricted free agent.
This meant that any other team could sign the Welshman not only to their first-team roster, but to their practice squad for further development.
The Jaguars’ international practice-squad player, former Aussie rules footballer Patrick Murtagh, suffered a season-ending ankle break earlier this month and so they opted to recruit Rees-Zammit as their 17th man in his absence.
A typical practice-squad player can be elevated at any point during the season to a club’s 53-man roster or even directly into a matchday squad where required.
As effectively additional players, however, international recruits such as Rees-Zammit, Smyth and McAtamney are permitted to feature in only three matchday squads as practice-squad players. A fourth match appearance would require their upgrading to a club’s 53-man roster.
Rees-Zammit could yet return to the field in Britain this season: the Jaguars play the Chicago Bears at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 13 October and then face the New England Patriots at Wembley on 20 October.
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