Week Ten in the NFL is complete and was largely an uneventful one at the snapping position. Don Muhlbach of the Lions appeared to injure himself Sunday, but was able to return to the game.
Six different snappers recorded solo tackles in punt coverage this week. The six were Jeremy Cain (Chicago), Aaron Brewer (Denver), Thomas Gafford (Kansas City), Zak DeOssie (Giants), Jon Dorenbos (Philadelphia) and Kyle Nelson (San Francisco). The NFL Long Snappers Chart after Week Ten is below.
In prior years, the long snapper was one of the last positions to be selected in the premier college all-star game, the Senior Bowl. This year, at least one snapping specialist was in the very first group.
Joe Cardona of Navy accepted his invitation today and will be able to showcase his snapping skills for all 32 NFL teams in Mobile, Alabama on January 25, 2015.
Week Nine in the NFL is complete and there were no major snapping issues, although the Jaguars special teams units had a few problems against the Bengals, including a blocked punt for a safety.
Last week marked the 150th consecutive game for John Denney of the Dolphins, who set the team record for consecutive appearances. Denney has snapped in every Miami game since entering the league as an undrafted free agent in 2005.
Carson Tinker of the Jaguars recorded a solo tackle in punt coverage, while Zak DeOssie of the Giants had an assist. The NFL Long Snappers Chart after Week Nine is below.
Week Nine NFL Long Snappers Chart
No one should ever question the toughness of those who fill the snapper position in football. The latest evidence comes from the CFL, where veteran snapper Jordan Matechuk of the BC Lions will have the ring finger on his right hand removed this week. Matechuk has suffered numerous finger injuries during his career and the impact on the injuries that have occurred to his ring finger cannot be fixed.
To avoid pain, Matechuk made the difficult decision to remove the finger and plans to return to snapping in the CFL.
Week Eight in the NFL is complete and included the return to the NFL for Kevin McDermott. McDermott, who made the Niners as a rookie free agent last year before being cut before the regular season this year, replaced injured Morgan Cox in Baltimore.
This week also included another game with no punts, the third in NFL history and second this season. The Packers and Saints game featured zero punts and marks the second game this season for Green Bay with no punts. It previously happened in Week Four against the Bears.
Five snappers recorded tackles in punt coverage this week, with John Denney (Dolphins), Jake McQuaide (Rams) and Andrew DePaola (Buccaneers) tallying solo tackles and Garrison Sanborn (Bills) and Christian Yount (Browns) adding assists. The NFL Long Snappers Chart after Week Eight is below.
Arkansas long snapper Alan D’Appollonio had the day that most snappers can only dream about on Saturday. In the second quarter against Alabama-Birmingham, Arkansas was facing fourth down from the UAB 6 yard line.
On the fourth down play, Arkansas offensive lineman Sebastian Tretola lined up as the quarterback in shotgun. The play featured an unbalanced line and D’Appollonio snapped the ball and ran a route into the end zone. Tretola threw the pass to D’Appollonio for a touchdown. A link to the video is below.
The new Fall Experimental Football League (FXFL) has started and aims to provide a developmental platform for the NFL. The league hopes to beat the odds and avoid the fate of other failed leagues, such as the XFL and UFL.
The FXFL features four teams that will play six games. Each team has a dedciated snapper and two were eligible for this year’s Draft, Marcus Heit (Omaha) and Vance Barton (Florida). The two other clubs are using snappers from past Draft classes in Jon Akemon (Brooklyn) and Avery Rigg (Boston). Among the twists in the FXFL playing rules are that extra points will be kicked from 35 yards out.
Week Seven brought the first significant injury at the snapping position this season. Although John Denney (Dolphins) and Garrison Sanborn (Bills) suffered injuries in Week Six, both were able to snap without incident this weekend. However, Morgan Cox of the Ravens suffered a torn ACL late in the game against the Falcons and will miss the rest of the season.
Cox was replaced on a late extra point attempt by Haloti Ngata and will be replaced for the rest of the season by former Niners snapper Kevin McDermott. McDermott won a snapping battle with client Patrick Scales on Monday.
Client Brett Goode of the Packers was the subject of a detailed profile by Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week. McGinn’s story included some interesting data about the current 32 NFL snappers, including the fact that the average age is 29.3 and the average snapper has been with their team for 5.7 season. The article closes with the top 10 active snappers by games heading into this weekend’s action. Mike Leach is the active leader with 208 games, while Goode was tenth at 102 games.McQu
Two snappers, Josh Harris (Falcons) and Jake McQuaide (Rams), had solo tackles this week. The NFL Long Snappers Chart after Week Seven is below. The Chart has been updated to include the veteran free agency status of those snappers whose contacts expire after this season. The “Contract” column will show those snappers who will become unrestricted free agents (UFA) and can sign with any club, restricted free agents (RFA) who have limited mobility and exclusive rights free agents (ERFA) for which the present team owns their exclusive rights.
Last September, I debuted a Twitter list I created containing only the tweets of active NFL long snappers. For those interested, click the link below and you can subscribe to this list.
https://twitter.com/longsnapcom/lists/nfl-long-snappers
Of the 32 current NFL snappers, just four do not appear to have a Twitter account. The four are Aaron Brewer (Broncos), John Denney (Dolphins), Greg Warren (Steelers) and Mike Windt (Chargers).
Of the 28 snappers on Twitter, 19 of them have are verified accounts with a blue check. Those without the blue check are Beau Brinkley (Titans), Jeremy Cain (Bears), Thomas Gafford (Chiefs), LP Ladouceur (Cowboys), Mike Leach (Cardinals), Cullen Loeffler (Vikings), Don Muhlbach (Lions), Kyle Nelson (49ers) and Tanner Purdum (Jets).
Last night’s game between the Jets and Patriots has caused a bit of a controversy with a long snapper in the middle of it. A 58-yard field goal attempt by Nick Folk of the Jets was blocked, giving the Patriots a narrow victory. The controversy surrounds what happened just prior to the failed kick.
Specifically, Dont’a Hightower of the Patriots lined up in a standing position and directly over snapper Tanner Purdum of the Jets. This would violate NFL Rule 9, Section 1, Article 3 that requires the defender on a kick attempt to “have his entire body outside of the snapper’s shoulder pads at the snap.”
Instead of a flag being thrown, the official notified Hightower to move out of the illegal formation and he promptly shifted his position. The issue is whether the official should have thrown the flag or was it appropriate to first warn the player. An NFL spokesperson called it “standard operating procedure” to have the official assist, since the goal of the rule is player safety.
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