Huge challenge still ahead for NFL hopeful Valentine Holmes

While the success of two players to graduate from the International Pathway Program to an NFL roster provide inspiration for Valentine Holmes, it also emphasises the enormity of the task still ahead.

Valentine Holmes has been picked up by the New York Jets.

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No wonder Valentine Holmes was trying to sell the story of his NFL signing for $10,000 — he’s going to need the money.

Holmes has been picked up by the New York Jets under the NFL’s International Pathway Program on a practice contract worth around $181,500 for the season, which is about one sixth of what he was earning in the NRL.

Of course if he makes it onto the Jets 53-man roster on August 31 his salary will jump to the league minimum of $680,000 — not that there’s any guarantee that will happen.

When the NFL’s International Pathway Program was instituted in 2017 it was seen more as a promotional ploy than a genuine scouting exercise.

Valentine Holmes has been picked up by the New York Jets.

So far only two players from that program, Australia’s Jordan Mailata at the Philadelphia Eagles and the Carolina Panthers’ Nigerian-born Englishman Efe Obada, have made it through to the playing roster of their clubs.

Mailata, who the Eagles see as a long-term prospect, was placed on injured-reserve last season and is yet to play an official match, meaning eight-game veteran Obada is the only player to make it through the program and on to the field.

While Holmes and his fellow Pathway graduates will take inspiration from the progress of Mailata and Obada, it is significant that neither are skill-position players where their size and bulk makes up for a lack of experience in the nuances of the game.

Even then, Obaba was not a complete novice, having played American football in the UK, been signed as a free agent to the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad before being cut in 2015, spent time with both the Kansas City Chiefs and Atlanta Falcons and tried unsuccessfully to progress through the inaugural Pathway program in 2017.

Jordan Mailata’s journey to the NFL can serve as inspiration for Valentine Holmes. Picture: Jonathan Ng

All of which emphasises the enormity of the task still ahead of Holmes — and the magnitude of the achievement of rugby league-to-NFL trailblazer Jarryd Hayne, who arrived unheralded in the US and played eight games as a running back-punt returner for the San Francisco 49ers.

Just to make it to the NFL with less than no experience is an outstanding accomplishment. To do it as a running back/wide receiver as Holmes is attempting is almost unheard of.

One thing that Holmes has in his favour is that he has been picked up by one of the least-successful franchises, with the Jets having not made the play-offs since 2010, finishing last in their division last season and being regarded as very much the less-popular little brother of the neighbouring New York Giants.

Just as with Hayne at the underperforming 49ers, the publicity value of having a former “Aussie rugby star” on the roster won’t be underestimated by the club’s marketing department.

New York Jets quarterback Sam Darnold. Picture: AP

There is also the fact that in second-year quarterback Sam Darnold the Jets have an exciting young play-caller who is on record as saying he is keen to try new things in an attempt to get the team off the bottom of the AFC East.

It could all add up to exciting things for Holmes in the Big Apple — but he probably shouldn’t spend all of his $181,500 at once.