What's behind the Irish impact in the NFL?

At the High Performance Centre in Dublin during the week between Christmas and New Year, approximately 100 kickers and punters, all NFL hopefuls from across the island of Ireland, assembled for a winter training session under the watchful eyes of Tadhg Leader and his staff.

A former rugby fly-half who switched to kicking as a player, Leader now runs an academy helping prospective talent get scholarships in the USA, as well as serving as a coach on the NFL's International Player Pathway (IPP) programme.

While it is a relatively new phenomenon, the prospect of playing college football Stateside before then embarking on a career in the NFL is no longer a pipe dream for the hopefuls in attendance.

In 1985, the Dubliner Neil O'Donoghue ended his eight-year, three-team career at the then St Louis Cardinals, and when Derry's Jude McAtamney took to the field for the New York Giants in November 2024, it bridged a near 40-year gap.

Yet after McAtamney, there was no such wait for the next Irish presence in the league. In December 2025, fellow former GAA player Charlie Smyth, from Mayobridge in County Down, followed in his footsteps.

While McAtamney was released by the Giants this season, Smyth - who worked with Leader before impressing the Saints - finished the year as the starting kicker in New Orleans, playing the last six games of the campaign.

With many of those in attendance at the Dublin camp already having made an impact in college football, soon there could well be more claiming spots on NFL team rosters – it is definitely, as Leader notes, become "a thing".

"It is 'a thing' absolutely, and a lot has gone into making it 'a thing'," he says.

"Just a year or two ago, we'd have had 10 lads here, but we had the passion, energy and belief that Irish lads could do this.

"We sent a few out that have proven that and now we've near 100 lads here. I will probably need to go buy more footballs for the next session."

Leader believes that, with Smyth the example, more and more will view the once unlikely journey as a viable sporting path.

"The belief now is that it's possible," he added.

"Having real life examples, lads like Charlie Smyth and what he's doing, [other] lads from Tyrone, Derry, Cork, now you can see it, you can believe it and that's also been the proof of concept on the American side.

"They love it, they love these Irish lads coming out and banging field goals over from all sorts of distances."

For Leader, it is no coincidence that the players he discovers, nurtures and advises have found an affinity with the specific kicking positions in American football.

"The ball-striking ability we have in Ireland is unparalleled and it's unique what we have here," he said.

"It's all to do with hitting a wet, heavy Gaelic ball or rugby ball that develops the leg strength in these lads and it just translates perfectly."

The IPP has offered a pathway but the NFL is a ruthless business too. McAtamney lasted five games in the league before two missed extra-point attempts in the Giants' 33-32 defeat by the Denver Broncos saw him unceremoniously cut.

Smyth has a 75% success rate in field goals so far in his career with the Saints, making 12 of 16 attempts, but this month told BBC Sport NI's GAA Social podcast he knows he will need to improve just to stay in the league.

Leader, however, has no doubts over Smyth's potential for longevity.

"Charlie's been phenomenal and he's always looking to get better and that's the mentality of someone who's elite," he said.

"It's the mental capacity that is the separator - how you can go out there, week in and week out, producing at a high level in a ruthless sport. But Charlie is also going to be the first of many. I can guarantee that."

Recent big moves at college level in the off-season would suggest Leader might be right.

Conor McAneney, from Plumbridge in County Tyrone, has just transferred from Quincy to Florida State, while Paddy McAteer, from Mullaghbawn in County Armagh, is heading to the Indiana Hoosiers - the newly crowned College championship winners.

Little more than a year ago, Lorcan Quinn, an All-Ireland winning Gaelic footballer with Tyrone, was working on the roads, laying Wi-Fi and telecom cables. As kicker for Marshall University, he made his debut in front of 80,000 against the Georgia Bulldogs.

"I'm in the middle of it out there and I think it's crazy," he says.

In his first year playing NCAA football, Quinn broke Marshall's record for the most field goals in a single season with 21 successful kicks, had the most successful 50+ attempts (four) and recorded an 86% touchback rate, the second highest in all college football.

That piqued the interest of Alabama, one of the college game's traditional big beasts, and he will kick for the Crimson Tide in the 2026 season.

Inspired by Smyth's emergence at the Saints, he now wants to follow him into the NFL.

"I look up to him even though I am probably a couple of months older than him," Quinn says.

"He's inspiring loads of lads here. He's made it possible when before it would have seemed unlikely.

"But he's opened a door there and shown, if you have the leg talent and put the work in, where you can end up."

Quinn would appear right now to be the most likely candidate to eventually make that extra step up to the NFL, but he is just one of more than half a dozen hopefuls from Irish shores already making the grade at college level.

And it is not just the kickers.

While Dan Whelan became the first ever Irish-born punter in the NFL when he was signed by the Green Bay Packers in 2023 and has since gone on to become one of the best in his position in the NFL, Adam McCann-Gibbs, from County Down, hopes to join him one day soon.

The talented 18-year-old will be punting for North Carolina this coming year, which means playing under the guidance of eight-time Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Belichick.

He is set to make hie debut in familiar surroundings with the Tar Heels opening the 2026 season at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin against TCU in the College Classic this August.

"There's a lot of pressure - you have seen the extremes with what's happened to Jude and getting cut," said McCann-Gibbs.

"But my aspiration is simply to succeed by being the best version of myself.

"If things don't work out, you're coming back a better person, in better shape and with an amazing degree. But everyone now has the aspiration to go all the way and make it to the NFL."