Jude McAtamney bet on himself, now the Stampeders are cashing in

The rookie kicker from Ireland has seized his opportunity in Calgary while René Paredes recovers

It’s more than Irish eyes smiling on Jude McAtamney these days. Luck might have something to do with timing in the kicker’s world. But that’s about it.

It’s truly skill, a belief in himself and a commitment to his craft that have the Calgary Stampeders rookie stepping strongly into the shoes of the injured René Paredes. “Jude’s committed to being better and taking advantage of any opportunity he gets,” said Stampeders GM/head coach Dave Dickenson, when praising the first-year boot-man from Northern Ireland. “I mean ... he did kick in the NFL,” continued Dickenson, of McAtamney.

“So it’s not like he doesn’t have some experience, but we’ve liked (what he’s done).” And why not? Coming into Saturday’s Week 7 of the Canadian Football League schedule — a rematch for the Stampeders (2-3) against the visiting Montreal Alouettes (4-1) at McMahon Stadium (2 p.m., TSN5, QR Calgary 770 AM) — McAtamney has proved to be more than simply a replacement for hall-of-famer-in-waiting Paredes.

The rookie’s nailed all but one field-goal attempt, missing his first and rebounding for eight straight. He’s hit all but one convert — only one full-time kicker in the CFL has gone perfect on the schedule. And his handsome hang-time on kickoffs is allowing for the coverage team to get downfield in to a position to do its job.

“What I’ve liked is Jude has helped us in our kickoffs, because he gets so much height,” Dickenson said. “René can bomb it down there, too, but it just seems like Jude has a lot of height on it, and we’ve got a fast (coverage) team.” Yeah ...

there could be a conundrum to deal with for Dickenson in the not-so distant future. What of the Paredes— now in his 15th CFL season — these days? The 41-year-old kicker and longtime staple of the Stamps was placed on the six-game injured reserve list with a hip issue to start the schedule, and Saturday’s contest marks the team’s sixth game.

So a decision will have to be made on what to do with the kickers following this home tilt. Unless he’s up to full snuff, that likely means Paredes being put back on either the one-game or six-game IR, although he has participated more in practice lately and ended the week as ‘questionable’ on the team’s injury report. “René does seem to be progressing — and that’s a good sign,” Dickenson said.

“And Jude’s kicking well. So I’m just gonna just keep thinking about it and let René get healthy. But certainly good to see him out there.

“And Jude’s been improving week to week,” continued Dickenson, of McAtamney. “Had a good battle in camp, so I just feel like he’s doing the right things.” In last week’s 37-30 loss to the host Alouettes — the first tilt of this home-and-home set — McAtamney knocked home all three field-goal attempts, including a 54-yarder made on the last play of the first half.

He also converted on a 47-yarder in the third quarter to help the Stamps climb back into the contest. Those are pretty good bombs for the 26-year-old, who seems to have adjusted to the CFL game in short order. His longest field-goal of the year was a Week 4 57-yarder during the Touchdown Kelowna victory by the Red and White.

“I’ve hit from the 60s a few times in practice, so it’s in me,” McAtamney said. “Obviously, the conditions depend for those long kicks, and it depends what the team needs at that moment in time.” With Paredes shelved to start the season, the team has needed a bona-fide kicker.

And McAtamney, the Stamps’ sixth-overall pick in the 2026 CFL Global Draft, has certainly stepped up to fill that void, betting on himself with strong conviction in getting the gig done — thanks in part to help from Graham Gano, his former kicking mate with the NFL’s New York Giants. “He’s one of the best kickers ever to go through the NFL — he taught me a lot,” said McAtamney, who stepped in for Gano when the veteran NFL kicker was injured during the 2025 campaign. “It was Graham who taught me a lot of how to kick into the wind.

He can manipulate the ball in certain ways to help you get a certain advantage, depending on what wind you’re dealing with. So all those things just accumulate, increasing your chances to succeed in whatever wind or conditions you’re in. “It’s all about backing yourself,” continued McAtamney, who went 3-of-3 on field-goals and 10-of-13 on extra points and averaged 63.8 yards on 10 kickoffs during his two seasons with the Giants.

“Graham’s a big advocate that you should be the biggest believer in yourself and not be looking for outside noise to give you credit. “And if someone’s saying something bad about you, it means you don’t take their word for it as truth. You know ...

you have to believe in yourself more than anything. So I think that was the biggest thing I learned off Graham was just have that confidence and belief in yourself, no matter what situation you’re in.” Really, McAtamney was believing in himself long before Gano lined up as part of his daily routine.

McAtamney played Gaelic football growing up in Ireland and put his kicking skills in play on a pathway to the American game. It was a route that took him far from home to the Prokick Australia program and then to the NCAA, where he was a star for Div. II Chowan University in North Carolina before kicking for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights for the 2022 and ’23 seasons. And it was another kicker in David Shannon he thanks for greasing that trail to pro football, as the Irish kicker went through Prokick Australia and on to a scholarship with the NCAA’s Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets ahead of McAtamney.

“Like literally as soon as I seen David do that, I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to do this, because I knew I had the talent to progress it,’” said the 6-foot-1, 215 lb. kicker. “It was a combination of looking to be a pro athlete and playing Gaelic football in Ireland, where there were a lot of similar types of kicks to field-goal kicks. So I was always naturally very good at that from a young age, and I always wished I could get paid for doing that.

“People in my old sport thought I was kind of crazy to do what I was going to do, because I had no