The CFL regular season got underway this weekend and featured the same eight snappers that started the season last year. Of this group, only veteran Randy Chevrier has spent time in the NFL. Below are the snappers for each club.
British Columbia 40 Tim Cronk
Calgary 56 Randy Chevrier
Edmonton 53 Ryan King
Hamilton 54 Kevin Scott
Montreal 37 Martin Bedard
Saskatchewan 47 Cory Hucklack
Toronto 82 Chad Rempel
Winnipeg 50 Chris Cvetkovic
Ryan Pontbriand, who is the highest drafted snapper in the history of the NFL, is now offering both private and group snapping training and instruction. Based in Texas, Pontbriand has started to train high school and college snappers in sessions that include video analysis to help improve snapping ability.
For those who are interested in learning from a veteran NFL snapper, you can contact Ryan directly for more information via email at prosnap64@gmail.com.
California high school snapper Zach Smith, who is committed to attend USC next Fall, has become the latest national video star with his amazing compilation of long snapping tricks. At last check, Smith’s video had over 425,000 views and has received significant national media attention.
This video and all of the corresponding attention it has received in just the last few days is yet another example of how snappers can receive positive press in a position that is otherwise designed to be very anonymous. In 2011, Zach Enyeart was one of the first snappers to gain national exposure with a similar video of snapping tricks.
The video is below.
Phil Steele’s College Football Preview is one of the best college preview publications I have seen, largely because it always includes detailed information on each FBS team’s long snapper. Steele continues to respect the position and today updated his Daily Blog with his 2013 Preseason All-American Team. The list goes four teams deep and, most importantly, includes long snappers.
This year, the 1st Team snapper is Scott Thompson of NC State. 2nd team is Drew Howell of Oregon, 3rd is Matt Dooley of Indiana and 4th is Reid Ferguson of LSU. Each snapper is also the product of noted snapping instructor, Chris Rubio.
NFL clubs continue to adjust their rosters as they sign draft picks and round out the 90 man roster for training camp. There have been a few snapping transactions over the last week or two, with the Seahawks waiving Adam Steiner, the Chargers deleting Kyle Nelson and the Cowboys dropping Charley Hughlett.
Nelson was subsequently claimed off waivers by the 49ers, giving them three snappers on the roster, and the Cowboys replaced Hughlett with rookie Jackson Anderson from Duke.
The rookie mini-camps are now complete and there were no additional snapper signings. However, there have been a few transactions at the snapping position. The Raiders waived Adam Steiner, who was then claimed by the Seahawks. Two recent free agent signings, clients Nick Guess (Raiders) and Patrick Scales (Dolphins), were also waived in the last few days.
Most NFL teams will conduct their three day mini-camps starting tomorrow, although a few teams conducted their camps last weekend. After the Draft, six rookie long snappers signed contracts, while a number of other rookies have been invited to mini-camp without a contract.
Below are the signings and mini-camp invites for rookie snappers. Street free agent snapper and client Nick Guess also signed a contract with the Raiders, while other snappers from prior Draft classes attended, or will attend, mini-camps on a tryout basis, including Scott Albritton (Vikings) and Corey Adams (Broncos).
Rookie LS Signing Contracts: Mike Zupancic (Patriots); Luke Ingram (Steelers); Carson Tinker (Jaguars); Adam Steiner (Raiders); Kevin McDermott (49ers) and Jorgen Hus (Rams)
Rookie LS Tryouts: P.J. Mangieri (Jets); Jordan Cowart (Redskins); Dax Dellenbach (Seahawks); Brandon Gabbard (Giants); Adam Nelson (Chiefs); Tyler Morgan (Panthers/Falcons); Jesse Smitherman (Cowboys)
Last Sunday, Doug Williams of ESPN.com Playbook published a story that provides a compelling and comprehensive look at the growth of long snapping camps. Featuring Cole Mazza, widely regarded as this past season’s top high school snapper and an Alabama recruit with a full scholarship, and his instructor, Chris Rubio of Rubio’s Long Snapping, the story describes the growing cottage industry of long snapping camps.
In addition to helping young snappers hone the various skills that snappers need, such as accuracy, velocity, consistency and blocking, the camps are also critical to identifying talent for college coaches. For example, Rubio’s camps helped his snappers secure 66 college commitments this season alone.
The NFL Draft is in the books and, once again, no long snapper was drafted. The last snapper to be drafted was Jacob Ingram in the Sixth Round by the Patriots in 2009. Ingram’s brother, Luke (Hawaii), is one of a number of snapping prospects who have signed as undrafted free agents. Luke signed with the Steelers immediately after the Draft. Other snappers to reach deals include Carson Tinker of Alabama (Jaguars), Kevin McDermott of UCLA (49ers) and Adam Steiner of Akron (Raiders).
Although I have not been able to confirm certain transactions, it appears from various published reports that other snappers may have also reached either contract deals or tryout opportunities in mini-camp. These snappers include Georgia Tech’s Tyler Morgan (Panthers), Houston’s Brandon Hartson (Bears) and Eastern Michigan’s Mike Zupancic (Patriots).
Longsnap.com will be updating the list as the transactions become official over the next few days.
With the NFL Draft starting this Thursday, the NFL Long Snapper Chart has been updated for the event. Below is the updated Chart with the “Experience”, “Contract”, “ST Coach” and “Other Snapper” columns updated as of today.
The Dolphins recently added street free agent and client Patrick Scales to compete with veteran John Denney. With the move, six teams have snapping competition heading into the Draft.
Although a snapper has not been drafted in a number of years, it is expected that between six and eight teams will sign snappers as undrafted free agents after the Draft and multiple other teams will invite snappers to mini-camp on a tryout basis without a contract.
Longsnap.com will have frequent updates as to snapper signings and tryouts over the Draft weekend.
NFL Draft 2013 Long Snapper Chart
