Whereas Smyth’s successful effort on Saturday could be considered as comparatively routine for an NFL kicker, he was seen efficiently executing from significantly larger distances throughout his pre-game preparations.
New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen stated after the sport that he would have been assured handing Smyth a tougher effort had the ultimate drive stalled additional again up the sphere.
“We might’ve kicked it from, I do not know, sixty. You understand? Relying on how a lot time was left within the sport and whether or not I believed the down and distance was, what we thought the chances was,” he stated.
“However I felt good about him hitting the gap, wasn’t apprehensive about that in any respect.”
Having solely beforehand watched him work in observe, Allen was happy by Smyth’s means to carry out in a “stress scenario” with a sport on the road.
“I believed that was superior,” he added.
“First kick in, not an NFL sport, a soccer sport, in an American soccer sport. For him to knock it by means of like that in a stress scenario, that was cool to see.”
The Saints’ pre-season continues in opposition to the San Francisco 49ers at 01:00 BST on Monday 19 August, constructing in the direction of their first aggressive motion of the 2024 marketing campaign in opposition to the Carolina Panthers on 8 September.
Smyth was not the one participant from Northern Eire to make his NFL debut over the weekend.
Swatragh’s Jude McAtamney, one other from a GAA background however who beforehand performed school soccer at Rutgers, kicked an extra-point within the New York Giants’ pre-season win over the Detroit Lions on Friday night time.