2001 Groza Winner Makes Good

By Vito Stellino
Times-Union staff writer

When Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio was asked last week if he'd be nervous about going into the season with a rookie kicker, he said he wasn't a nervous type of guy.

"You guys can be nervous," he told reporters. "I'll let my wife be nervous for me. We're going to make a decision and go forward and not look back."

Rookie kicker Seth Marler made that decision easy for him Saturday night in Tampa when he made both of his field goal attempts, including a 55-yarder.

Del Rio awarded Marler the kicking job yesterday when he cut his other two kickers -- James Tuthill and Danny Boyd -- while slicing the roster to 71 players. The Jaguars were allowed to keep the mandatory limit of 65 plus the six players who played in NFL Europe.

Jaguars rookie kicker Seth Marler pumps his fist after nailing a 55 yard field goal against the Buccaneers. -- Rick Wilson/Staff

It's the second consecutive year the Jaguars have gone into the season with a rookie kicker. Last year, coach Tom Coughlin gambled on rookie Hayden Epstein, but lost confidence in him and cut him after six games. Coughlin wound up using four kickers, including Boyd.

When Del Rio was asked if Marler's 55-yarder calmed his nerves, he said, "That helps, no question. I guess my point is that I just don't believe in playing scared, coaching scared. I think you select the guy who you think is the best guy to do the job and then you trust him to do the job."

Most rookie kickers bounce around a bit before they settle in, but Del Rio said, "You hope that he's [Martin] Gramatica or one of the other rookie kickers who's come on and done well. Olindo Mare or someone like that. Some guys come in and they never look back. Some guys just need more time. We just feel he's come on and he deserves a shot."

Although Martin Gramatica was drafted by Tampa Bay in 1999 and is in his fifth year with the club, Mare is an example of how difficult it is for a rookie kicker to make it with his first team. He's been one of the league's best in Miami the last six years, but he originally was signed by the New York Giants in 1996 and was released.

Marler, 22, barely looks old enough to be going to his high school senior prom,but he may be too young to let the pressure get to him. He even thinks kicking in the regular season isn't much different than kicking in the preseason.

"To me, there's really no difference," he said. "It's a game. You're in a game situation and you've got people running at you trying to block it and you're trying to put it through the uprights. That's really not different to me."

He wants to bring the stability to the kicking job the Jaguars haven't had sinceMike Hollis departed a year ago.

"I'm really blessed I'm the only one here right now and I want to keep it that way. I don't want them to have to say, 'We're going to have to bring in another kicker and another kicker and another kicker.' I don't want last year to repeat itself down here," Marler said.Marler, who wasn't drafted, said he signed with the Jaguars because he felt hehad an opportunity to compete for a job and it's close to his home in Lilburn, Ga.

He said he wasn't used to competing for a job because he was always the only kicker at Tulane. Marler knows he has a job as long as he keeps kicking well, but it's a nervous time for a lot of the rookies since 18 players will leave by Sunday when the final cut to 53 is made.

Wide receiver Cortez Hankton, another undrafted rookie free agent, survived yesterday's cut and said, "Actually, it seems like every locker around me was empty. I felt kind of lonely over there today. I guess that's the nature of the business."

Managed By: