Snapping Picture Around the NFL

Posted on September 3, 2016 by longsnap

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Today is the day for “final” cuts in the NFL.  It is not uncommon for additional moves to happen after today’s roster deadline and that would appear to be the case in Green Bay.

The Packers waived Rick Lovato today, leaving them temporarily without a snapper.  Client Brett Goode has just worked out for the team and could return after missing the end of last season with a torn ACL.  The other snapper to be waived today was client Patrick Scales in Chicago, leaving Aaron Brewer as the snapper.

Earlier this week, the Bills waived Reid Ferguson.  Ferguson, along with John DePalma, Tyler Ott and Jeff Overbaugh, had a workout with the Seahawks yesterday.  Seattle may still be looking to add a snapper following recent struggles by rookie Nolan Frese.

 

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NFL Roster Cuts Impact Snapping Position

Posted on August 30, 2016 by longsnap

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By today at 4PM eastern time, every NFL team must be down to 75 players.  Like in prior seasons, this first mandated roster cut tends to have the greatest impact on the long snapping position and rookie snappers in particular.  Although not all roster moves have been made, at least eight snappers have already been impacted.

Among the cuts are Ryan DiSalvo (Dolphins), John DePalma (Eagles), Danny Dillon (Cardinals), Jeff Overbaugh (Rams), Chris Highland (Saints), Tyler Ott (Giants) and Andrew East (Raiders).  Client Jimmy Landes (Lions) was placed on injured reserve and will miss the season.

The two teams that have two snappers on the roster at this point are the Bears (Patrick Scales/Aaron Brewer) and Bills (Garrison Sanborn/Reid Ferguson).  It also appears two rookies, Kameron Canaday (Cardinals) and Nolan Frese (Seahawks), have made teams.  Client Casey Kreiter (Broncos), who is a first year player, also appears set to snap in his first regular season game.

Longsnap.com will continue to update the snapping situations around the league with final cuts coming on Saturday.

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Two Snapping Moves

Posted on August 21, 2016 by longsnap

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The second week of the NFL Preseason is now complete and, prior to this week’s game action, there were two snapping transactions.

The Steelers waived client Matt Dooley and the Packers reached an injury settlement with Jesse Schmitt.

NFL rosters, which are currently at 90 players, must be down to 75 by August 30th and then the final 53 on September 3rd.

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Interesting Analysis of NFL Team Spending on Special Teams

Posted on August 15, 2016 by longsnap

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Dave Archibald of Inside The Pylon.com recently wrote a comprehensive and unique analysis of how NFL teams allocate their spending to special teams.  Archibald concluded that there was a “mild correlation” between spending on special teams players and special teams performance, particularly in New England and Baltimore.

In the salary hierarchy of special teams, long snappers trail kickers and punters with most snappers earning barely more than minimum salaries and having little guaranteed money.

NFL Special Teams Investment

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Packers Sign Schmitt; Schmitt Breaks Hand

Posted on August 10, 2016 by longsnap

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The Packers signed Jesse Schmitt, a street free agent snapper from Purdue, who was previously  in mini-camp with Green Bay on a tryout basis.  Schmitt was signed to compete with Rick Lovato and participated in practice last night where he promptly broke his hand.

Schmitt is expected to be out 4-6 weeks and may reach an injury settlement with the club.

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Vikings Extend McDermott; Saints Add Highland

Posted on August 9, 2016 by longsnap

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There were two snapping transactions yesterday, as the Vikings gave Kevin McDermott a new four year contract that runs until the end of the 2020 season.  McDermott would have become an unrestricted free agent after this season.

In addition, the Saints brought back Chris Highland as training camp competition for Justin Drescher.  Highland has been signed by the Saints a few times since last season.

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Unique Insight into the Cardinals Search for a New Snapper

Posted on August 5, 2016 by longsnap

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As most aspiring professional long snappers know, it is very rare to have an open job in the NFL and even more unusual to have two rookies compete for it.  However, that is the exact scenario facing the Arizona Cardinals following the retirement of veteran Mike Leach after last season.

Matthew Bain of AZ Central Sports wrote an interesting story the other day about the competition between rookies Danny Dillon and Kameron Canaday.  Bain describes how special teams coach Amos Jones, who coached Leach and, before that, Greg Warren from his time with the Steelers, was in an unusual position of having to find a replacement.

Given the blessing of General Manager Steve Keim to “find the guys you like”, Jones worked out about 12 long snappers but were focused on small school snappers Dillon from Campbell University and Canaday from Portland State.  Both were signed as undrafted free agents and are roommates now competing for the job.

Of note in the story is that, during his search, Jones focused on the few remaining college teams that still use the punt protection schemes employed in the NFL requiring that the snapper block and protect before covering downfield.  Jones felt that finding a guy who knew how to protect was critical since it would minimize the amount of things the new snapper had to learn.

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Seahawks Drop Ferris

Posted on August 4, 2016 by longsnap

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In the effort to replace client Clint Gresham, who was released in the off-season, the Seahawks appear to have settled on rookie Nolan Frese.  The Seahawks waived Drew Ferris today making Frese the only snapper in camp.  Frese snapped at the University of Houston and was signed in late June.

 

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STATS FCS Preseason All-America Long Snappers

Posted on August 1, 2016 by longsnap

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The STATS FCS Preseason All-America Team was announced today and each of the three teams have a long snapper included.  Joshua Appel (Indiana State) is on the first team after landing on the second team last year.  Joseph Smith (Charleston Southern) is the second team snapper, while James Fisher (North Dakota State) repeats as the third team snapper.

Last year’s first team snapper, Kameron Canaday (Portland State), is currently with the Arizona Cardinals.

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Dorenbos and His Magic

Posted on July 30, 2016 by longsnap

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Followers of the Longsnap twitter account (@longsnapcom) will be familiar with the magic of Eagles long snapper Jon Dorenbos.  For the last few weeks, Dorenbos has been creating a stir with his magic tricks performed on the NBC show America’s Got Talent.

Each week, I have retweeted the video of his tricks, but Dorenbos has now reached the semifinals stage of the show and deserves his own blog post.  Dorenbos is now eligible for the million dollar prize and has also brought new attention to the long snapping position.

Best of luck to Jon as he continues to be a professional in two very unique ways.

Posted in NFL, Snapping in the Media | Comments Off on Dorenbos and His Magic