He may be buried on the Jaguars wide receiver depth chart, but Parker Washington left London with a mark in the NFL record books after returning a New England Patriots punt 96 yards for a touchdown in the third and final game of the 2024 International Series visit to U.K. shores.

The Penn State product — who admitted channelling prime DeSean Jackson before the game — left the Patriots special team players trailing in his wake as he streaked down the left-hand touchline on his way to paydirt, and later labelled the return as a ‘special moment’ even as he realised the enormity of the achievement, which marked the longest punt return in franchise history and the first special teams touchdown in the U.K. since the NFL London games began in 2007. Washington’s was also the first Jaguars player to return a punt for a score since WR Keelan Cole’s 91-yard effort in 2020.

“It’s crazy because, all week talking with teammates, we were like, ‘It’s going to happen, you’re going to get one, You’re going to score and get a punt return’,” he said. “I was telling some of the players, some of the coaches, that I just wanted one. I just wanted one career punt return touchdown — or just any return touchdown — so it’s just a special moment. Being overseas, it’s just surreal, just special. I just want to embrace it and have fun with it. It’s just a special night for the team, getting us back on track, but we have to keep going. It don’t stop here. We have to go back to the United States and continue to do what we do and handle business, go 1-0 [every week].”

Washington wasn’t even the team’s prime punt returner heading into the season, but an injury to Devin Duvernay during the Jaguars’ only other win of the season, against Indianapolis, promoted the second-year player to the role.

“It just goes back to your mentality,” Washington insisted. “Chop wood, carry water, keep going. Before this day, I wasn’t starting. I had to step up. Dev went down, so it’s just being ready and seizing that moment. Even going back to the sidelines, it was like, ‘Reset, let’s get another one, don’t get satisfied, chop wood, carry water, keep going no matter what.”

The receiver, who sees his in-game opportunities limited by the likes of Christian Kirk, Brian Thomas Jr and tight end Evan Engram, was confident he could make something happen in the return game at Wembley, even if a score wasn’t necessarily on his radar.

“Yeah, definitely,” he grinned. “Just going into that play, I’m knowing that their punter was booming them. I knew he could out-kick the coverage and I saw the opportunity, so I was like, ‘Let’s be aggressive’ — and it paid off!

“That’s my first time ever getting that close to the snapper or even a punter, so I just knew from my mindset, when I think about it, that I’m going to run through them because they don’t want to tackle. Just in that moment I just was like, ‘Let’s just trust my speed and, if he tackles me, I’m just going to try and run through him or right around him.”

Washington celebrated just prior to crossing the goal-line, turning around and falling into the endzone before being engulfed by ecstatic team-mates.

“I always do my little whatever, and I was telling one of my teammates that, If I get a chance and if I have room, I’m just going to turn around right before the endzone and kind of do it. It was just a fun time, and I feel like that’s what it’s all about. Bring juice to the team the best way you can. That momentum carried into the rest of the game and I felt like that helped us get a win today.”

That momentum is something Washington — and the rest of the Jacksonville team — knows has to continue once they arrive back in Florida ahead of the rest of the season.

“It starts in practice, it starts with the preparation,” he emphasised. “We had a great week of practice, great competition. The energy was there. Like I said, I felt like our issue was translating that to the game, having that same energy, having our teammates’ back, picking everybody up who needed to be picked up, and just playing together. I feel like that made tonight special, and we just have to keep building on that. I feel like that will take us a long way for the rest of the year.”