EXCLUSIVE
Louis Rees-Zammit will face uncertainty, daily challenges and outside doubt.
The Jacksonville Jaguars' Ross Matiscik knows exactly what that's like.
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Four years ago, Matiscik had to prove to the Jaguars during training camp that he was worthy of a spot on the team's 53-man roster.
It was also the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, which made Matiscik's daily uphill climb even tougher.
"The way I looked at it, the only reason why I wasn't going to make the NFL or make the make a roster was because I wasn't good enough," Matiscik exclusively told talkSPORT.
"It wasn't going to be because anything off the field. It wasn't going to be because I didn't work hard enough. It was because I was straight up not good enough."
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Matiscik was signed out of college as an undrafted free agent, despite playing 52 games throughout his career at Baylor.
Four years later, he's an All Pro longsnapper for the Jaguars and has spent his recent days on Jacksonville's annual UK and Ireland summer player tour, which features stops in Bristol, Manchester and Dublin.
"I told myself every night, 'Hey, if I don't make it, it's because you're not good enough,' " Matiscik said. "That's the answer. So I just didn't let it be the answer."
Rees-Zammit, who is attempting to find a place on the back-to-back Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs with Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, faces an even more challenging start to his pro football career than Matiscik.
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The former Wales rugby star has already befriended Kelce and Mahomes, and has a flashy Instagram page with almost 500,000 followers.
But 'Rees Lightning' will also have to win over his new Chiefs teammates, an entire locker room and Kansas City's coaching staff, then display his weekly dependability on the NFL field.
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Louis-Rees Zammit reveals the reason he chose the Kansas City Chiefs over other NFL teams that wanted to sign the Wales rugby star
There's also Andy Reid's famously complex playbook, which could include LRZ in new kickoff formations if he can block and run plays with the best football players in the world.
“It’s completely different," Rees-Zammit said last month.
"In rugby, it’s free flowing. Unless you get a set piece in rugby --
that’s when you call a play -- there’s probably 20-30 plays a game. Whereas here, you’re talking 100.
"It’s been interesting to learn the playbook -- obviously we’re only a few installs in. I’ve only been here for a week but, yeah, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it and I can’t wait to see what happens next.”
Matiscik recalled placing "one foot in front of the other" as he slowly carved out a lasting place on the Jaguars during a strange COVID year.
"It felt like it was a two-month long training camp," he said.
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Like Matiscik, Heath Farwell made the Pro Bowl despite going undrafted out of San Diego State.
Jacksonville's special teams coordinator also won Super Bowl XLVIII with Seattle while serving as the Seahawks' special teams captain.
"It's a big deal, obviously, going into a big locker room of NFL players -- 90 players, and I was probably the 90th player," Farwell said. "The biggest thing is just trusting your skills and what you've done and what you have the ability to do. And just staying focused on every single play of getting better."
Rees-Zammit, 23, stunned the rugby world by leaving the Welsh national team on the eve of the recent Six Nations that featured England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Italy.
Right now, he's just No. 9 for the Chiefs and listed as a 6ft 2in running back weighing 209lbs on a big summer roster that almost approaches 100 players.
He's a rookie trying to make it through training camp, then make the Week 1 53-man roster, then find his way onto a real NFL field by being one of the final 46 on game day.
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"I think it's the mentality of proving everyone wrong," Farwell said. "I think that's what all undrafted players have. They have it as a rookie because you're the 90th player, essentially.
"Then every year ... they're always trying to replace you with the first-round pick or second-round pick or whatever higher draft pick.
"So you always keep that hunger about you. And I think that's why a lot of these guys stay as long as they do as a former undrafted player."
Jacksonville returns to London for back-to-back games in 2024.
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Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars face Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears on Oct. 13 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The Jags then host the New England Patriots on Oct. 20 at Wembley Stadium, which was taken over by Taylor Swift and Kelce last weekend.