Week Ten of the NFL season is complete. Matt Katula made his snapping debut this season with the Patriots on Sunday night. Other than the Patriots move, the snapping position has remained stable. Just one snapper, Lonie Paxton of the Broncos, had a solo tackle in punt coverage.
The Week Ten NFL Long Snapper Chart is below.
Rick Gosselin of The Dallas Morning News is mentioned here frequently, as he does an excellent job of covering the NFL generally and special teams play in particular through his end of season ranking of each special teams unit.
In his regular column this week, Gosselin previews the 2011 NFL Draft for specialists and includes two snappers. Gosselin, based on his sources, has ranked Andrew Schulze (Iowa) and Zach Enyeart (Washington State) as the top snappers for the Draft in April.
The first snapping move of the regular season that did not involve the Chargers occurred today, as the Patriots waived second-year snapper Jake Ingram and added veteran Matt Katula, who was released by the Ravens in training camp. Ingram had been erratic over the last few games, prompting the Pats to make a move.
In other snapping news, the Giants have extended the contract of snapper Zak DeOssie through a reported two-year extension.
Week Nine is complete and featured yet another punting issue when a San Diego punt was deflected against the Texans. This time, the Chargers were able to overcome the error.
Snappers Mike Leach (Arizona) and Thomas Gafford (Kansas City) each had two solo tackles on punt coverage. Pat Mannelly (Chicago), John Denney (Miami) and Clint Gresham (Seattle) each had one solo tackle each, while Don Muhlbach (Lions) had an assisted tackle.
The NFL Long Snappers Chart after Week Nine is below.
Special teams play has been critical this season and there are more numbers and theories to document and explain this development. The Chargers lost four games to kicking game issues and a number of other games have turned on this critical aspect of the NFL.
Peter King of Sports Illustrated weighed in on this issue recently and highlighted five games where special teams play made a difference. King’s article notes that Rick Gosselin of The Dallas Morning News, who annually ranks special teams units, found that, through Week Seven last season there were 38 “explosive plays” on special teams. These are either touchdown returns, blocks and turnovers. This year, through the same timeframe, there have been 63!
Previously, Longsnap.com described the rule change that prevents a player from lining up over the snapper. This has creating some blocking issues and led to larger gaps in the middle of the field, such as the recent play in which Browns punter, Reggie Hodges, executed a fake punt in which he ran for 68 yards. This change, combined with the elimination of the four player wedge blocking on kicks, may be a key factor in the big special teams plays.
Week Eight is complete and featured another special teams issue for the Chargers when the Titans blocked a punt for a safety. It was the fourth time this season the Chargers had a punt blocked. Three snappers, Garrison Sanborn (Bills), Andrew Economos (Bucs) and Ken Amato (Titans), each recorded solo tackles.
The NFL Long Snappers Chart after Week Eight is posted below.
Once again this season, special teams have played a key role in the outcome of games. Poor special teams efforts have plagued the Chargers and Dolphins in recent weeks and other teams, such as the Saints and Raiders, lost early season games due to missed short field goals.
The football stat gurus at Football Outsiders have come up with a new statistic to measure poor special teams play through a number called Special Teams Disasters. The number includes blocked punts, touchdowns allowed on punt returns and touchdowns alliowed on kickoff returns. In the first five weeks of the season, the Chargers had 6 STDs.
Football Outsiders has also developed measurements for some positive special teams stats in the form of return tackles (the number of tackles and assists made on kick and punt returns), return stops (when a tackle is made on a return for less than an average return based on the length of the kick or punt and where the returner catches the ball) and return saves (tackles or assists a player makes on a kickoff past the 50-yard line or any punt return of more than 20 yards).
The leaders in each of the categories from 2005-2009 were Brendon Ayanbadejo (78 return tackles), Ayanbadejo (60 return stops) and the leader in return saves with eight was Jets punter Steve Weatherford.
Week Seven is now complete and the snapping position remains stable, even in San Diego. Jake Ingram of the Patriots had some snapping problems against the Chargers, while Cardinals cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie had three penalties for being offside trying to block Seahawk kicks. It turns out the Cardinals believed Seattle snapper Clint Gresham had a hitch in his snapping motion and the Cardinals were going on the first movement of the ball.
Jon Condo of the Raiders had a solo tackle and fumble recovery, while Thomas Gafford (Chiefs) also had a fumbled punt recovery. Pat Mannelly of the Bears added an assisted tackle.
The Longsnap.blog has changed slightly, as a hosting change forced the blog to move. As a result, some pages are not fully-functional yet and the weekly snapper chart will not be immediately available.
Veteran NFL special teams coach Russ Purnell is featured in the latest issue of ESPN The Magazine. Purnell was interviewed as part of the “6 Things You Should Know About” column. In talking about the various components of the special teams units, Purnell commented that the snapper “is the one I can least afford to take for granted. You don’t know how valuable they are until you have issues.”
Purnell has coached for two Super Bowl teams (Ravens and Colts) and is currently the special teams coach for the Jaguars.
