The NFL Draft gets started tomorrow but Saturday is the key day for long snappers. While it is unclear if a long snapper will be selected this year, the Rams and Seahawks do not have a snapper under contract, making it more likely that one or two snappers are chosen.
In recent weeks, the Cowboys addressed their snapping need by signing former Raider Trent Sieg. The Rams conducted a recent tryout with Tyler Ott, Brady Sorenson and Logan Klusman but none were signed. Scott Daly signed his exclusive rights contract with the Lions and he will compete with Jake McQuaide.
Stay tuned to Longsnap.com Saturday evening for all the long snapping updates from the Draft.
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The reboot of the USFL is back for a second season and regular season games resumed last week. With eight teams, the USFL provides opportunities for long snappers to get more exposure and game file.
Two USFL snappers from last season, Mitchell Fraboni and Tucker Addington, each made their NFL debuts last year.
Below are the long snappers for each USFL team for 2023:
Birmingham Ryan Langan
Houston Ross Reiter
Memphis Ryan DiSalvo
Michigan Shane Griffin
New Jersey Jordan Ober
New Orleans Turner Bernard
Philadelphia Ryan Navarro
Pittsburgh Riley Lovingood
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Veteran free agency is entering its second week and, while snappers rarely switch teams, that is not the case this year.
First, Joe Cardona signed a new four-year deal to remain in New England and Andrew DePaola signed a new three-year deal in Minnesota. Another veteran, Casey Kreiter, did a one-year deal to remain a Giant and Nick Moore inked a new two-year deal with the Ravens.
Three snappers are changing teams. Former Rams snapper Matt Orzech signed a three-year deal with the Packers. Jacob Bobenmoyer, who was not tendered as a restricted free agent by the Broncos, instead signed a three-year deal with the Raiders. After signing Bobenmoyer, the Raiders released Trent Sieg who is free to sign elsewhere. Finally, former Cowboys snapper Jake McQuaide had tryout with the Lions and signed to a one-year deal. The Lions also have Scott Daly on the roster, who was tendered as an exclusive rights free agent, but not yet signed his contract.
Below are the six unsigned snappers as of this morning:
UNRESTRICTED (6)
Aaron Brewer (Cardinals)
Beau Brinkley (Falcons)
Clark Harris (Bengals)
Tyler Ott (Seahawks)
Matt Overton (Cowboys)
Carson Tinker (Seahawks)
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While there is usually double-digit changes at the special teams coaching position in the NFL, there will be much more stability for the 2023 NFL season. Some new head coaches retained the existing special teams coach that helped maintained stability.
Below are the four new special teams coaches for 2023. Bubba Ventrone moves from the Colts to the Browns and Brian Mason moves from the college ranks to the Colts. Ben Kotwica and Chase Blackburn return to lead the special teams with the Broncos and Rams respectively and each have recent NFL experience with special teams.
CLEVELAND Bubba Ventrone
DENVER Ben Kotwica
INDIANAPOLIS Brian Mason
RAMS Chase Blackburn
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Veteran free agency kicks off next week in the NFL and a number of teams locked up their snapper before free agency begins.
Of the potential unrestricted free agents that could sign anywhere once free agency starts, Taybor Pepper of the Niners signed a new three-year deal, while JJ Jansen (Panthers), Jon Weeks (Texans), client Patrick Scales (Bears) and Morgan Cox (Titans) each signed one-year contracts.
Three exclusive rights snappers will return to their teams since they were offered a one-year deal. Those that signed are client Liam McCullough (Falcons), Cal Adomitis (Bengals) and Christian Kuntz (Steelers). Scott Daly (Lions) is the only exclusive rights free agent not to have re-signed at this time.
Two other snappers, Nick Moore (Ravens) and Jacob Bobenmoyer (Broncos), remain restricted free agents that have limited ability to move if offered a one-year deal.
Below are the remaining unsigned snappers in each category as of this morning:
UNRESTRICTED (11)
Aaron Brewer (Cardinals)
Beau Brinkley (Falcons)
Joe Cardona (Patriots)
Andrew DePaola (Vikings)
Clark Harris (Bengals)
Casey Kreiter (Giants)
Jake McQuaide (Cowboys)
Matt Orzech (Rams)
Tyler Ott (Seahawks)
Matt Overton (Cowboys)
Carson Tinker (Seahawks)
RESTRICTED (2)
Jacob Bobenmoyer (Broncos)
Nick Moore (Ravens)
EXCLUSIVE (1)
Scott Daly (Lions)
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The XFL returns today but only six teams are using pure long snappers. Two other teams, DC and Orlando, are using position players to handle snaps despite each drafting a long snapper.
The only team that drafted a snapper and replaced him with another snapper was St. Louis who drafted Billy Taylor.
Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs and long snapper James Winchester on yesterday’s Super Bowl win which officially ended the current NFL season.
However, there is no off-season in the NFL, as attention will turn to the NFL Combine, veteran free agency and the NFL Draft. Alex Ward is the only long snapper invited to the Combine.
With respect to veteran free agency, the snapping position features a large class of free agents. While some may sign new deals before the start of free agency on March 15th, a total of 16 snappers are unrestricted free agents and can sign with any club if not re-signed.
Two other snappers are restricted free agents that have limited ability to move if offered a one-year deal and four others are exclusive rights free agents which means their teams retain their rights if they are offered a one-year contract.
The snappers in each category are below and will be updated as new deals are announced.
Many of the top long snapping prospects for the 2023 NFL Draft are taking part in college all-stars games to impress scouts and coaches.
The East-West Shrine Bowl takes place tonight, while the Senior Bowl will be played Saturday. Some other key post-season games have already been played.
Here are the snappers for some of the top all-star games this season:
SENIOR BOWL
Alex Ward (UCF) and Robert Soderholm (VMI)
EAST-WEST SHRINE BOWL
Matt Hembrough (Oklahoma State) and Chris Stoll (Penn State)
NFLPA COLLEGIATE BOWL
Soderholm and Dalton Godfrey (South Dakota)
TROPICAL BOWL
Austin Mock (Liberty) and Cameron Lyons (Charlotte)
HULA BOWL
Ward, Stoll and Evan Deckers (Duke)
FCS BOWL
Cody Clements (Eastern Washington) and Joe Skinner (West Georgia)
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It will be the Eagles and Chiefs in the Super Bowl and the game will feature experienced snappers on both teams. Rick Lovato (Eagles) and James Winchester (Chiefs) each won Super Bowls and this will be Winchester’s third Super Bowl appearance and Lovato’s second.
There were no tackles in punt coverage until yesterday’s Conference Championship games when Lovato added an assisted tackle and Cal Adomitis (Bengals) had a solo tackle.
Since the end of the regular season, one snapper, Joe Fortunato, signed a reserve/future contract with the Cardinals. Another free agent snapper, client Harrison Elliott, had a tryout with the Packers but was not signed.
Morgan Cox of the Titans was voted the best long snapper on the first-ever NFLPA All-Pro team selected solely by NFL players, while Andrew DePaola (Vikings) and Nick Moore (Ravens) were selected as the AP All-Pro team snappers. The entire AP All-Pro voting results, including the 12 snappers that received at least one vote, can be found here.
Tomorrow we learn who will play in the Super Bowl but, until then, we have NFL writer Rick Gosselin’s annual evaluation of every NFL team’s special teams units. This year marked the 42nd edition of his rankings and they produced some surprises.
Gosselin ranks every team in 22 kicking-game categories and assigning points for the best to the worst, with the lower total number the better. This year, despite not much success in the win column, the Texans special teams, led by Frank Ross, was the top unit. Ironically, two of the final four teams, the Eagles and Chiefs finished 31st and 32nd.
The top five special teams units were (ranked 1-5):
Houston Texans
Seattle Seahawks
Baltimore Ravens
Carolina Panthers
Buffalo Bills
The bottom five special teams units were (ranked 28-32):
New York Giants
Los Angeles Rams
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Philadelphia Eagles
Kansas City Chiefs
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