“Just happy to knock it down,” Smyth said. “I looked up and saw it was going up the middle. You can only improve as much as you can when you can trust your action. I don’t have to worry about them all the time because I know the ball is going to be perfectly placed.”
While the 56-yarder was a tall order, Smyth was then asked to attempt the near-impossible after the Saints needed the ball again late in the fourth quarter.
Smyth tipped the football horizontally and halfway outside the box for the kick-in before rolling the football at perfect speed and with the least bit of English towards the 10-yard touchline. The Dolphins players seemed unsure of what to do in the moment as the ball slowly slipped past and ended up in Devaughn Vele’s grasp.
“You know it’s going to spin eventually as long as you don’t hit it,” Smyth said. “We practice them every week. It’s nice to be able to help the team.”
The referees found that the ball bit a Dolphins player before Vele caught it just short of the touchline; the final explanation of what was a spectacular onside kick and recovery.
“We practiced it this week and caught our own team off guard,” Smythe said after the game about the kick. “Me and Vele had discussions about it and we went for it. Vele did a great job.”
Although the Saints fell behind, Smyth may have come away with a win.
His impressive NFL debut came at the end of a week in which he won a kicking contest against Cade York, which elevated him to the active squad from the practice squad this weekend. Smyth’s journey to the NFL began in 2024 after he decided to take his kicking skills to the NFL after playing Gaelic football his whole life.
Best of all, Smyth’s parents jetted across the world from Ireland to Miami just in time to see their son not only make his NFL debut, but secure their role in the process.
“If we had to wait three or four hours longer, I don’t think it would have been possible,” Smyth said of the turnaround his parents made for their flight. “It was so awesome to see them here.