There has already been one transaction at the snapping position during the opening days of training camp, as the Saints have signed rookie Chris Highland from Illinois State. Highland, who was in mini-camp with the Saints on a tryout basis, was added due to an apparent injury to regular snapper Justin Drescher. The injury to Drescher is unknown but he is expected to return soon.
With every NFL training camp set to open by the end of this week, it’s a good time to take a look at the snapping situation for all 32 clubs.
Attached is Longsnap.com’s 2015 Training Camp Edition of the long snappers chart. As usual, the chart features biographical information on each NFL snapper, including uniform number, height, weight and when their current contract expires. For those eight NFL teams that have another snapper in camp, the second snapper is also included with their uniform number.
2015 Training Camp Long Snapper Chart
Today’s Football 101 video on the Indianapolis Colts’ website colts.com features long snapper Matt Overton.
In the video linked below, Overton provides a nice introduction to the mechanics of the short and long snap.
With the college football season approaching, some FCS long snappers have earned Preseason All-America Team status according to STATS.
STATS announced three teams of top players with Kameron Canaday (Portland State) named first team, followed by Josh Appel (Indiana State) and James Fisher (North Dakota State).
Although FBS snappers tend to get most of the little attention given to college long snappers, it is nice to see a list of the top FCS players that includes long snappers.
The story of long snapper Nate Boyer, who is trying to make the NFL as a 34-year old rookie, is now well-known. Today, Boyer was honored to have been selected to write the Monday Morning Quarterback column for vacationing Peter King for The MMQB website.
In his piece, titled “The American Dream“, Boyer writes an inspirational account about how he achieved his dreams of snapping in college and the NFL following his Army career. Although many stories have been written about Boyer’s journey, this may be the best because it is in his own words.
Although NFL training camps are a month away, the CFL season is underway. This year, three snappers have prior NFL experience, including veteran Randy Chevrier who returns in Calgary. Jorgen Hus and Chad Rempel have more recent NFL training camp experience and will snap in Saskatchewan and Winnipeg, respectively.
Below are the snappers for the 2015 CFL season based on opening day rosters and depth charts.
British Columbia 40 Mike Benson
Calgary 56 Randy Chevrier
Edmonton 53 Ryan King
Hamilton 47 Aaron Crawford
Montreal 37 Martin Bedard
Ottawa 50 Kevin Malcolm
Saskatchewan 46 Jorgen Hus
Toronto 58 Jake Reinhart
Winnipeg 46 Chad Rempel
Phil Steele’s 2015 College Football Preview has just been released. Once again, Steele’s magazine is one of the very few to include college long snappers on his All-American Team and, for the first time this year, as Draft prospects.
Both lists are identical as Steele lists LSU’s Reid Ferguson on his 1st Team and top NFL prospect. Ferguson is followed by Taybor Pepper (Michigan State), Nolan Frese (Houston), Jeff Overbaugh (San Diego State) and Cole Mazza (Alabama). All are seniors except for Mazza.
The Browns have terminated the contract of veteran long snapper Christian Yount. Yount, a five-year veteran, struggled at times last season. With Yount’s departure, Charley Hughlett is the only snapper on the roster. Hughlett spent some time on the practice squad with Cleveland last season.
Nearly every NFL team will conduct organized team practice activities, or OTAs, this week. OTAs are the third and final phase of the voluntary nine week offseason program. Currently, nine teams have two snappers on their 90-man rosters. The Ravens, Bears, Browns, Cowboys, Chiefs, Vikings, Seahawks, Rams and Buccaneers all have two snappers.
Two additional snappers earned a mini-camp invite after the Draft. Avery Rigg had a try out with the Bengals and Jake Edmiston earned one with the Chiefs. Neither snapper was signed.
Yesterday, the NFL approved a proposal to change the rule on extra point attempts. Instead of a kick from the two-yard line, kicks will now take place from the 15-yard line. Two point conversions will still be taken from the two, but now defenses can return a two-point attempt and blocked extra points can also be returned for two points.
The rule, which passed 30-2 with only Oakland and Washington voting against it, is just for the 2015 season. As such, more changes could be made in the future.
