Jaguars training camp: Elliot Fry joins competition at kicker

The Jacksonville Jaguars weren’t probably pleased with how their kicker competition between Andrew Mevis and Ryan Santoso was going. That’s why they added Elliot Fry to the mix, less than a week away from their Hall of Fame game.

Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reported early Friday that the Jags worked out several kickers on Friday morning and chose Fry, who last played for the Cincinnati Bengals last season. Not long after, Jacksonville made the addition of Fry official and also announced that they’ve waived Mevis.

Even though Fry was the all-time scoring leader at South Carolina, he went undrafted in 2017. He finally got a chance when the Orlando Apollos of the Alliance of American Fooball came calling in 2019. The former Gamecock went 14-of-14 during his stint in the AAF. The Chicago Bears signed him in the offseason that year but released him during the preseason.

Fry has also spent with the Baltimore Ravens, the Carolina Panthers, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Atlanta Falcons, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Green Bay Packers. However, he’s only appeared in the regular season for Atlanta Cincy and the Chiefs. Despite the fact that Fry hasn’t managed to remain with a club for more than a season, he’s gone 5-of-6 in his field goal attempts (83 percent completion rate and 5-of-7 in extra points.

The Jaguars must sort out the kicker position as soon as possible

It’s telling that the Jaguars decided to try out several kickers and ink Fry. On one hand, it shows they aren’t willing to wait until things get worse to fix them. However, they didn’t probably expect Mevis and Santoso to struggle — and move on from the former — early in training camp.

John Shipley of Jaguar Report noted that neither Mevis nor Santoso has impressed and both have had a hard time nailing their attempts. Meanwhile, Mark Long of The Associated Press reported Thursday that former NFL head coach Dave Campo, now with 1010 XL, and Ashlyn Sullivan of the team’s official website got hit during warmups even though they were nowhere near the goal post.

Campo later clarified he was hit in the shoulder, not the head. Regardless, the incident encapsulated how things are going in Jacksonville.

The Jaguars hope Fry’s addition can spicy things up in the upcoming days and bring some clarity to the kicker position. Optimally, they will have addressed the issue by the end of the preseason, as they don’t probably want to go into the regular season with issues at kicker.