With the NFL regular season days away, just a few snapping jobs remain unsettled. Since the last issue of News and Notes, the Packers cut Thomas Gafford, making rookie JJ Jansen from Notre Dame the new snapper. Beyond Jansen, the only other questionable snapping situations are due to injury. Seahawks draft pick Tyler Schmitt has experienced back problems and the team was forced to bring back Tim Lindsey, while the Bears added Gafford after veteran Pat Mannelly was injured. It is expected that both Schmitt and Mannelly will be ready for the start of the regular season.

I frequently get emails from college snappers about what it takes to make it as a snapper at the professional level. Although I have some ideas from what I have seen, client Bryan Pittman was recently quoted in his hometown paper in Federal Way, Washington explaining it in his view. Pittman noted that "[i]n the professional scheme, you are required to do more than snap the ball. You've got to actually read the front, determine which way you are going to go, snap the ball and then block your man, sometimes two men. And sometimes you might have to change your feet and block the other way. To me that is the biggest difference between college snappers and professional, to be able to do that transition and have the confidence to do it every down."

News and Notes will return to a regular, weekly edition each Tuesday during the NFL regular season, starting Tuesday, September 9, 2008.