"Am I surprised? No" - Premiership Lock turned NFL Pro breaks down Louis Rees-Zammit's time in American Football

Earlier this month, Louis Rees-Zammit revealed his plans come back home to rugby, as the former Wales, Gloucester and British & Irish Lions wing ended his American dream to break into the NFL. After he too graduated the NFL IPP in 2024, Rees-Zammit signed with defeding Superbowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs. However, the Welshman was cut from the team to then sign with Jacksonville Jaguars, yet Rees-Zammit was unable to break into the match day squad down in Florida.

“Am I surprised? No." Scotland-Williamson said to BoyleSports, who offer the latest NFL Betting. "Being completely candid, the way you heard him speak about the opportunity, and how I felt like the door was almost left open by him for a return to rugby, made me question how successful that transition would be, given that he didn’t burn his boats with rugby."

“If you make a switch, you have to have a mindset that you commit to it totally. There are a lot of fast people in the NFL, everyone’s a good athlete, but it’s the mental side that really separates you and really gives you the opportunity to actually compete, having never played before. With that in mind, if the way you approach it is that you could always go back to rugby, if you have that safety valve, I don’t know that in the dark times that you will inevitably experience, it will allow you to really push that extra percent to make a success of the transition.”

Scotland-Williamson highlighted the importance of patience and resilience in the NFL. “Jordan Mailata, who is obviously the greatest success story of the whole programme [former South Sydney prop], spoke about the fact that it was year three, that he was finally able to actually figure out the game and he was able to compete, and then he got rewarded with that first big contract. Now he is a Super Bowl champion. It’s the mental and the mindset that really separates you from the rest.”

Scotland-Williamson acknowledged Rees-Zammit’s position of having rugby union waiting with open arms for his return, which only heightened the challenge of fully committing to American football. “Obviously, Louis is in a very privileged position in that he has lucrative contract offers in rugby available. I definitely feel that if anyone is to make the transition, you have to respect it for what it is. There’s only one league, only X number of positions available, and there are people who’ve been hungry for it since they were five years old. That hunger is going to win out every time.”

On the specific challenges Rees-Zammit faced on the field, Scotland-Williamson explained: “Louis struggled with pass protection, and he was never going to be a $30 million wide receiver. Louis played running back then moved to receiver, which are two completely different positions. With a running back you have to be able to be in pass protection, so you’ve got to protect the quarterback.

"If you can’t pass protect, you won’t be on the field on third down. He struggled because, as most people do, blocking requires you to be physically willing to put your face into a linebacker who’s got a run of steam running straight through the gap trying to take your head off. That’s not for the faint-hearted.”

Scotland-Williamson also shared insight into the complexity of learning multiple NFL playbooks. “To make coaches want to put you in, you have to basically become an encyclopedia of the offense, where if they ask you a single question, there can be no doubt that you know what you’re doing.

"Your position coach, the one who has to stand on the table in meetings and say ‘I trust this guy to be in the right place at the right time on the pitch,’ has to trust you. And because of your accent, because of your inexperience playing, there’s already so much against you. There is so much more to it, so many factors beyond ‘well, you’re a good athlete so you’ll make it.’ If you have to learn more than one playbook, that’s really tough.”

Reflecting on his own career, Scotland-Williamson described why he personally thrived in American football: “I think mine would be different to Louis’s. I never really felt accepted in rugby. I never felt I could be myself. I didn’t feel valued as an athlete. I saw my physical traits and my abilities would be more celebrated in America than they ever were in rugby.

"That was the case. I was probably a better American football player than I was a rugby player in terms of my true power. I’m a power athlete. The stop-start suited me. The ability to recover, the ability to express myself at 100% was far increased from changing sports. My physical composition completely changed from going out there as well. I would say it brought the best out of me.”

Finally, the former tight-end offered a positive outlook on Rees-Zammit’s rugby future: “It’s two-pronged. Firstly, he’ll be a better athlete than he ever was in rugby because his ability to cut and change direction wouldn’t have been challenged in the same way as in the NFL as a running back.

"I’d expect him to be a much-improved winger on the international stage and in the Premiership for sure. But then I think the greater and bigger lesson is probably the resilience side, the ability to overcome challenges, which are far greater in the NFL.

"Rugby players tend to have it easier in their pathways. The contrast with what NFL players often have to overcome is stark. So now he will be coming back with a new perspective to be a dominant force in something he has already been so successful at.”