Longsnap.com

With training camps underway, there have been three transactions involving veterans.  Jon Condo, an unrestricted free agent, signed a new deal with the Raiders, while another unrestricted free agent, Greg Warren, has signed a new deal with the Steelers.  Jason Kyle, who was injured late in the season last year, was released by the Saints after failing a physical.

One rookie free agent snapper, Aaron Feld (Mississippi State), was waived by the Bucs, leaving another rookie free agent, Christian Yount (UCLA), to compete with Andrew Economos, who is recovering from an off-season injury.

NFL training camps are now opening across the league and a number of snapping prospects endured a long wait to sign their first NFL contract and compete for a job.

Below are the various undrafted rookie free agent signings involving snappers to date.  Some rookies listed also play another position in addition to having snapping experience, while others are pure snappers.

Atlanta-Tom McCarthy (Yale); Andrew Schulze (Iowa)

Baltimore-Patrick Scales (Utah State)

Buffalo-Danny Aiken (Virginia)

Cincinnati-Neal Dahlman (Bowling Green)

Dallas-Corey Adams (Kansas State)

Jacksonville-Kyle Miller (Mount Union)

New England-Ryan Coulson (Nevada)

New Orleans-Kyle Nelson (New Mexico State)

Giants-Harry Flaherty (Princeton)

Pittsburgh-Derek Chard (Connecticut)

St. Louis-Jake McQuaide (Ohio State)

Tampa Bay-Christian Yount (UCLA); Aaron Feld (Mississippi State)

Tennessee-John Stokes (Vanderbilt)

The NFL lockout is over and, starting tomorrow morning, a few rookie free agent long snappers may finally get the chance to sign with an NFL club.  In addition to rookie signings, there are also some veteran free agent snappers who can negotiate with any club starting tomorrow as well.  The unrestricted free agent snappers are Jon Condo (Raiders), James Dearth (Chargers), Kevin Houser (Ravens), Ryan Neill (Chargers) and Greg Warren (Steelers).   J.J. Jansen (Panthers) is the sole restricted free agent and can obtain an offer from another club, with the Panthers having the right to match it.

While the NFL is expected to get back to business shortly, one viable option for snappers may be gone.  The United Football League was scheduled to begin its third season on August 13th but has just announced the start of the season will be delayed until at least September due to financial issues.  Some published reports have even expressed significant doubt about the continued viability of the UFL.

Snapper Nick Sundberg (Redskins) is a former member of the UFL that made it to the NFL.  If the UFL does cease operations, it will virtually eliminate professional long snapping opportunities outside of the NFL, as the Canadian Football League traditionally uses Canadian-based snappers.

One of the unique features of Longsnap.com has been the annual compilation of Division One long snappers.  Historically, determining the snappers for each college team has been a very tedious excercise.  It usually involved scouring team depth charts, where available, to determine the starting snapper. 

Of late, I have noticed that football writer Phil Steele has devoted some attention to the long snapping position and even included them in a midseason and postseason All-America team last season.  This year, I picked up his 2011 College Football Preview and stumbled on the list of each team’s returning and, in some cases, back-up snapper included in his 2011 Projected Starting Lineup for each FBS team.

Perhaps Phil Steele has included snappers for years and I just never noticed.  I usually look near the punters and kickers in magazines to determine if a snapper is included, but Phil Steele has included the LS information below each team’s center. 

Look for Longsnap.com’s annual compilation of each FBS team’s snapper in the Fall.

Like all NFL rookies, the top long snapping prospects from the 2011 NFL Draft are playing the waiting game.  With no snapper drafted and the lockout preventing any undrafted free agent signings, rookie snappers must hope for a quick resolution to the labor dispute before trying to earn their dream of an NFL roster spot. 

Some of the top snapping prospects in this year’s class have been profiled in the media during this unique period in the NFL’s history.  Christian Yount (UCLA), Corey Adams (Kansas State) and, most recently, Danny Aiken (Virginia) have each been the featured players in articles describing their wait to get a shot at an NFL training camp.

On Sunday, Rick Maese of The Washington Post wrote an extensive story about Aiken and how he is spending his time among the recent college graduates that are unemployed.  Maese’s story describes Aiken’s rise to snapping prominence and, along with it, includes some great background material on the growth of snapping as a speciality position in the NFL.

Due to the lockout, none of the 2011 long snapping prospects have joined an NFL team.  However, it is not too early to start looking at next year’s prospects.

NFLDraftScout.com is one of the few draft sites to give long snappers appropriate attention when it comes to identifying pro prospects.  They have already prepared a list of the top five 2012 prospects as of June 27, 2011, and Josh Harris of Auburn is the top ranked snapper.  He is followed by Kyle Wojta of Wisconsin, Nick Guess of Tennessee, Charley Hughlett of Central Florida and Matt Camilli of Texas El-Paso.

The CFL season gets underway on Thursday and, at the very least, provides an opporunity for some snapping news.  Once again, the snappers for each CFL club are non-imports or players born or trained in Canada.  Only Randy Chevrier of Calgary has NFL experience.  Below are the snappers for the eight CFL teams heading into the opening week.

British Columbia 70 Dan McCullough

Calgary 56 Randy Chevrier

Edmonton 52 Taylor Inglis

Hamilton 30 Kevin Scott

Montreal 37 Martin Bedard

Saskatchewan 47 Cory Hucklack

Toronto 82 Chad Rempel

Winnipeg 50 Chris Cvetkovic

Kent Somers of The Arizona Republic wrote an interesting story on the final day of the NFL Draft about the number of snappers in the NFL that are from Arizona.  Five of the 32 snappers are from the state.  Nick Sunberg (Redskins), Jon Weeks (Texans), J.J. Jansen (Panthers), Brian Jennings (49ers) and Jason Kyle (Saints) are all from Arizona.

In addition, former NFL special teams coach Gary Zauner and Ben Bernard of Arizona Elite Longsnapping, are both based in Arizona and have played a significant role in the state’s development of a number of NFL snappers.

The NFL Draft concluded last night and, like last year, no long snapper was selected.  In fact, just two specialists, Nebraska kicker Alex Henery (Eagles) and Miami punter/kicker Matt Bosher (Falcons), were selected.  The lockout prevented the usual immediate signing of undrafted free agents, so many of the top snapping prospects are forced to wait for the labor dispute to be resolved before they can sign with a team.