From rugby league to the NFL: rookie loving each day despite Patriots’ woe | NFL

Desperate to find breakthrough international stars, NFL talent scouts seem to have found two avenues well worth pursuing. Of the athletes in the league’s International Player Pathway (IPP) in 2024 and 2025, the latter group was announced last week, around half were rugby players of both codes from Australia or athletes with Nigerian heritage. In Jotham Russell, the NFL have both.

A year ago, Russell was pursuing his rugby league career at Tweed Heads Seagulls in Queensland’s Hastings Deering Colts competition. Identified as a potential NFL player, by January he was at trials for the IPP program at the IMG Academy in Florida. The Australian with Nigerian heritage survived the Rookie Camp in May and pre-season to sign for New England Patriots’ practice squad, watching an NFL game from the sidelines for the first time when the Pats lost to Jacksonville at Wembley in October. It has been a bewildering whirlwind.

“It was very much a right time, right place thing,” says the convivial Russell. “My head was never for the NFL programme. I was just in Canberra to sign an U21 contract for the Raiders.

“Someone had reached out to me and asked if I was interested as I fitted the physique they were looking for. They asked me to send some rugby highlights and ended up flying me to them in Gold Coast for an in-person training session. I heard they trained a few people before me and I was the last one so it ended up one-on-one. I only did an hour or so.”

That was enough for the scouts to believe he had serious potential. Born in Canberra but raised on the Gold Coast, Jotham was a prop in the Brisbane Broncos academy before switching to the wing. Now 21, Russell’s 6ft 4in 239lb frame cries “NRL second-rower”. Hence the defensive role in the 11-man code.

“They already had the idea of me being a defensive end because of the way I moved,” says the former Currumbin Eagles junior. “We did some moving backwards drills to see if I could drop into position, which is something I wouldn’t normally do other than getting back the 10 [metres]. When I started playing on the edge in rugby it was very much having to be able to move into space.

“I started playing prop but one year I ended up on the wing, which is a huge transition. But it’s a challenge and I loved it. I’m very thankful for it because moving from prop where I got that contact and it was just fast ‘downhill’ runs to playing on the edge where you have to more fluid and mobile was good for expanding my skills.”

The 49ers’ Mitch Wishnowsky, drafted in 2019, opened the gate for Australian punters to make the switch, most with an upbringing in Aussie Rules. There are half a dozen this year, while several Australians on the IPP have learned gridiron at US colleges. However, the NFL’s Australian poster-boy is Philadelphia’s Jordan Mailata, the former South Sydney junior. Two years ago, Mailata went within a whisker of becoming the second former rugby league player to win an NFL Championship. The American Gary Kerkorian, a back up quarterback to Colts legend Johnny Unitas in 1958, retains that crown. Mailata’s contract with the Eagles is worth $22m a year. No wonder others are chasing that pot of gold.

The first thing Russell did when signing up for the trials was listen to Mailata’s podcast and the former Rabbitohs player spoke with the youngster at the IMG camp, who was working out in his Seagulls vest. While his IPP status exempts him from their 90-man roster, the Patriots would not have retained Russell if they did not see potential.

While about 45 players get on the field most weeks, Russell is among 17 practice squad hopefuls watching and learning. In his case he is digesting the defensive end’s job: sack the quarterback or prevent a runner getting round the outside.

“I’m trying to get mental reps, seeing how much I know from what we’ve scouted during the week, what are they doing,” he says. “I’ve got to learn techniques from our team and other teams as I’m in the Look Team [which plays as the gameday opposition].

“I’ve definitely had moments thinking: ‘What am I doing here?’ For example, the Look Team for the Jags they do a three-point technique for their run, which is definitely different from us. We do a standing two-point so at the start I didn’t know what I’m doing. I had to pull my coaches aside and say I feel I can’t see anything. That was a whole other learning curve for me. I was able to fix my faults and learn a new technique.”

Few athletes have been paid to play rugby and American football. If Louis Rees-Zammit, the headline IPP signing of 2024, makes the leap he will join an elite group including Jarryd Hayne, Manfred Moore and Hayden Smith to have played both at the top level.

“My head space is very much: what is my role today? The goal is to get myself on the field, so what do I need to do now to do that?” Russell says. “That’s winning my reps in Look Teams, taking any notes or teaching points I need for my technique to get myself out there.”

He is pleased with what he has picked up in the first few months of an entirely new sport. “Being from rugby where we think and move, I think I can really simplify it and slow it down,” Russell says, “especially when it’s third and long on a pass-rush: I know my job is to get to the quarterback, so it becomes an instinctive movement and I can just play fast. That would be my strength.

“My fault is first down when I have to think more: is it going to be run or pass? That slows me down. I spend a lot more time thinking what they’re going to do than what I need to do. The instinct is not there – yet.”

Russell is also missing being in the thick of the action every couple of minutes. “I always loved having the ball,” he says. “My strongest suit was running with the ball. This is a whole new situation. I’m finding a love for a new position. I can’t say I’m wishing I was a tight end or anything. I’m loving it. It’s been a great experience.”

In theory, the IPP gives crossover athletes time to learn their new craft. However, recruiters have realised the younger they start, the better. “The programme gives me three years, although they can’t say it will be three years,” Russell says. He was the ninth former rugby player to sign up for the opportunity since Alex Gray, the former Newcastle and London Irish player, opened the way in the second year of the IPP.

“I never want it to be three years,” Russell says. “My personal goal is to get to a point where I’m on a normal practice squad position or even active squad position. I want to see how far I can take it as quickly as possible.”

The Patriots’ first post-Bill Belichick season has been a horrorshow. The six-time Super Bowl winners and 11-time AFC champions have lost 11 of their 14 games under Jerod Mayo, five by a touchdown or less. With Buffalo, the divisional winners, yet to come home and away it should get worse but the Pats are highly unlikely to reach into their depth chart as far as Russell.

“I can’t speak on what their plan will be but I can definitely be hopeful that that will be the situation,” Russell says. “They’ve been very positive, reinforcing how well I’m progressing and how happy they are. I know what my faults are and what I need to work on but I won’t make any presumptions.”

That’s probably wise. Happy sharing a house with the rookie safety Dell Pettus near the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium, Russell is still trying to get this head around a foreign culture. “The trial in Florida was the first time I’d been to America,” he says. “Living with the cold in Canberra for 10 years, Boston is definitely a lot more me: I’m made for it.

“I’m one of the guys now and they treat me well but I’m missing family and friends. It’s a very different vibe. You can’t compare American personalities to Australians. We have a lot of larrikins, and there’s not as much of that here. Maybe I need to find more of that crowd.”