Longsnap.com

With the all-star games complete, the NFL Combine is the next big event in the Draft cycle, followed by Pro Days at individual college campuses.  This year, Clint Gresham of TCU is the lone snapper at the Combine.  In addition to Gresham, there are a number of college snappers that are being evaluated by pro teams.  The snappers include Mike Windt (Cincinnati), Morgan Cox (Tennessee), Carter Brunelle (Baylor), Jack Geiser (Boston College), Kayl Anderson (Kansas), Preston Powers (Mississippi), Justin Drescher (Colorado) and Andrew Pitz (Penn State).

Rick Gosselin of The Dallas Morning News has just published his 2009 Special Teams Rankings and the Cleveland Browns and special teams coach Brad Seely finished at the top.  Gosselin ranks each special teams unit from 1 to 32 in 22 categories.  After the Browns were the Bucs, Bills, Cowboys and Jets.  The bottom five from the last up were the Panthers, Packers, Jaguars, Saints and Colts.  Previously, I reported on the rankings from FootballOutsiders.com, that also had the Browns as the top ranked unit.

The Saints victory over the Colts in the Super Bowl on Sunday gave veteran snapper Jason Kyle his first Super Bowl ring.  The NFL off-season is now getting started and the labor negotiations for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement will be critical to ensuring labor peace.

During the 2009 season, there were snapper changes in Cincinnati, St. Louis, Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, Pittsburgh and Seattle related to either performance or injury.

Looking ahead to free agency that begins in March, a number of snappers will be unrestricted free agents, including  Mike Schneck (Falcons), Joe Zelenka (Falcons), client Bryan Pittman (Texans), Jason Kyle (Saints), James Dearth (Jets), Jeff Robinson (Seahawks), Ken Amato (Titans) and Ethan Albright (Redskins).  Restricted free agents, for which teams have the right to match any offer, include Jon Condo (Raiders) and Ryan Neill (Rams).

In the last few weeks, a few teams have signed snappers to contracts for next season, including Nick Sundberg (Redskins) and Tanner Purdum (Jets).  In addition, it is expected that the Seahawks will be adding to its roster former UFL snapper Matt Overton and former CFL snapper Pat MacDonald.

At the pro level, client Justin Snow (Colts) and Jason Kyle (Saints) will be the snappers in Sunday’s Super Bowl.  A number of NFL special teams coaching vacancies have been filled recently, including Buffalo (Bruce DeHaven), Carolina (Jeff Rodgers), Detroit (Danny Crossman), Philadelphia (Bobby April), Pittsburgh (Al Everest), San Francisco (Kurt Schottenheimer) and Seattle (Brian Schneider).  There has also been one snapper signing for next year, as the Redskins added Nick Sundberg, who was in camp with the Panthers and on the Ravens practice squad at the end of the season.

As for college prospects, Carter Brunelle of Baylor was added to the Shrine Game, while Morgan Cox (Tennessee) and Mike Windt (Cincinnati) handled the snaps in the Senior Bowl.  TCU’s Clint Gresham remains the only snapping specialist invited to the Combine and will also snap in the final all-star game, Texas vs. The Nation this weekend.

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The college all-star game season is about to get in full swing and a number of NFL Draft prospect long snappers will get a tremendous opportunity to showcase their skills.  Mike Windt (Cincinnati) and Morgan Cox (Tennessee) will snap in the Senior Bowl, while the only snapper invited to the Combine so far, Clint Gresham of TCU, will snap for the Texas side in the Texas vs. The Nation game next month.  Blaze Soares of Hawaii, who is primarily a linebacker, is slated to snap for the Nation side.  The East-West Shrine Game, which takes place this weekend, will use position players to snap.

The recent traditional of adding a long snapper as a “need” player to the Pro Bowl teams has continued this year, with Raiders snapper Jon Condo representing the AFC, while Jon Dorenbos of the Eagles will snap for the NFC side.  Each player is making their first Pro Bowl appearance.

With the NFC and AFC Conference Championship games set, here are some quick notes about the snapping position through the first two rounds of the NFL playoffs.

Matt Katula of the Ravens had solo tackles in each of  his team’s two playoff games.  However, it appears that his arm injury may still be having an effect on his snapping, as he had a high snap on a field goal attempt Saturday night against the Colts.  Jets snapper James Dearth added an assisted tackle in yesterday’s win against the Chargers.   The Chargers missed three field goals in the game and snapper Dave Binn tried to take at least some of the blame away from kicker Nate Kaeding, claiming not all of the snaps were laces-out.

Each year, the experts at FootballOutsiders.com closely examine all aspects of the NFL game.  Special teams is no exception and the final rankings for the 2009 NFL Regular Season are complete.  Football Outsiders analyzes a variety of special teams categories and also factors in such things as weather conditions.

This year, the top five units were Cleveland, Philadelphia, Minnesota, Chicago and Tampa Bay.  In 2008, both Cleveland and Chicago were also in the top five, while Minnesota was dead last.  The bottom five this year were New Orleans, Carolina, Pittsburgh, Detroit and, in the last place spot, Green Bay.

With the regular season concluded, it is not uncommon to see many special teams coaches fired and, in some cases, hired elsewhere.  To date, the special teams coaches in Buffalo (Bobby April), Detroit (Stan Kwan), Pittsburgh (Bob Ligashesky) and San Francisco (Al Everest) have been let go, while new staffs are being sought in Seattle (Bruce DeHaven) and Washington (Danny Smith).  It is also expected that Bucs special teams coach Rich Bisaccia will move to the college ranks at Tennessee.

With Alabama’s victory over Texas last night, the college football season has come to a close.  The snappers in last night’s game, Greg Smith of Texas and Brian Selmon of Alabama, were the subject of a USA Today article yesterday.  As usual, the focus was on the quiet but critical roles snappers play in the success of a team.

With the regular season concluded, attention will now turn to the college all-star games and then the Combine in February.  As for snappers, there are a handful of draft-eligible long snappers with a chance to get into a training camp in 2010.  To date, TCU snapper Clint Gresham appears to be the only snapper invited to the Combine.