Although the 2014 NFL Draft concluded just a few weeks ago, there are already a handful of college snappers that are considered the early top prospects for next year’s Draft. Matt Dooley (Indiana), Jesse Schmitt (Purdue) and Andrew East (Vanderbilt) are among the seniors that will scouted very closely by NFL teams this season.
The 2014 CFL season is now underway which makes this a good time to take a quick look at the long snappers for each team. Former NFL snapper Randy Chevrier is back for another season in Calgary, while former CFL snapper Chad Rempel is off trying to earn a spot with the Bears in the NFL.
The snappers for each CFL club, including the new franchise in Ottawa, are below.
British Columbia 51 Jordan Matechuk
Calgary 56 Randy Chevrier
Edmonton 53 Ryan King
Hamilton 51 Marc-Antoine Fortin
Montreal 37 Martin Bedard
Ottawa 54 Kevin Scott
Saskatchewan 62 Levi Steinhauer
Toronto 58 Jake Reinhart
Winnipeg 38 Ian Wild
With NFL training camps a few weeks away, this time tends to be a slow one in the NFL. In the last few weeks, other than the retirement of veteran Pat Mannelly, the only long snapping transaction involved the Jaguars.
The Jaguars waived Trevor Gillette, one of the three college snappers signed after the Draft, and later replaced him with Charley Hughlett. Hughlett was with the Patriots for a brief period after this off-season and was in camp with the Cowboys last year.
After 16 seasons in the NFL following his selection in the Sixth Round of the 1998 NFL Draft, Pat Mannelly of the Bears is retiring today. Mannelly is 39 and, although he had hoped to return for a 17th season, a hip condition may have prevented his return.
Mannelly was involved in 2,282 plays in 245 games and will be remembered as one of the best long snappers in NFL history. The Bears currently have CFL veteran Chad Rempel and Brandon Hartson, who was in camp with the Bears last season, in camp as candidates to replace Mannelly.
Phil Steele has just announced his All-America teams and, as usual, his is one of the rare publications to include long snappers. The first team snapper is Scott Thompson of NC State, who held the same position last year. Reid Ferguson of LSU is the second team snapper, while Matt Dooley of Indiana and Logan Feimster of Wake Forest are third and fourth team selections.
With the last few NFL teams holding rookie mini-camps this weekend, it looks like this year was the worst in recent memory for a long snapper looking to earn a contract. To date, just three snappers signed a contract after the Draft. The three snappers are Casey Kreiter (Dallas), Trevor Gillette (Jacksonville) and Tyler Ott (New England). Since Longsnap.com has been tracking snapper transactions since 2000, this is the lowest number of signings for snappers. Marcus Heit was originally thought to have signed a contract with the Chiefs, but that ended up being a tryout. Chris Maikranz, who was with the Texans on a tryout basis last week, also tried out for the Chiefs, but neither has been signed at this point. Although not all tryout players are public, my original list of tryout players should have also included Scott Albritton, who earned a tryout with the Jets last weekend. In other snapping moves, the Seahawks waived Jorgen Hus, who was claimed by the Rams where he spent part of training camp last season. After signing Ott, the Patriots waived Charley Hughlett and the Bucs brought back Andrew DePaola, who has been in camp in Tampa Bay the past few seasons.
Last year, I wrote about Jake Olsen, a blind high school long snapper from California. This year, another blind high school snapper, Aaron Golub has received national attention after being awarded preferred walk-on status at Tulane University. Golub is legally blind and snapped at Newton High School near Boston.
Long snapping is perhaps one of the few positions in football in which a person can still succeed, even with limited vision, if they have the talent and ability. Golub and Olsen are two great examples of why the snapping position remains so special and unique in the game of football.
Although only a few long snappers signed contracts after the Draft, many more are being given opportunities to perform at rookie mini-camps over the next two weekends. Not all teams release information about tryout players, but my research has found at least 15 snappers who have been given tryouts. Below is a list of names and teams. Many of the snappers are from this year’s Draft class, although a few are from prior draft classes.
Atlanta: George Makridis
Carolina: Dax Dellenbach
Chicago: Craig Montgomery
Denver: Tanner Hedstrom
Detroit: Ryan Iverson
Green Bay: Bryan Whitaker
Houston: Chris Maikranz
New Orleans: Jareth Glanda
Jets: Kyle Stetler
San Francisco: James Davenport
Seattle: Jake Edmiston
Tampa Bay: Drew Howell and Mike Yerry
Tennessee: Jon Akemon
Washington: JR Carr
The smoke is starting to clear from the undrafted free agency frenzy that follows the Draft. Last night, I reported three signings and one tryout. Since that time, there has been at least one more signing, as Marcus Heit (Kansas State) signed with Kansas City.
Three other snappers have also earned mini-camp tryouts, including Jareth Glanda (Michigan) with New Orleans, Chris Maikranz (Lamar) with Houston and street free agent Kyle Stetler (Wisconsin-River Falls) with the Jets.
As expected, no long snapper was drafted today. However, a few signed contracts or, in at least one instance, agreed to a tryout after the Draft. Among the early signings are Casey Kreiter (Iowa) with Dallas, Trevor Gillette (Rice) with Jacksonville and Tyler Ott (Harvard) with New England. JR Carr (Tennessee) will have a tryout with Washington.
More signings and tryouts are expected to be announced in the next day or two.
Longsnap.com 