Snapchat: Here comes the long snapper

by Site Admin

One of the most oft-requested pieces of analysis we get if for an in-depth look at the art of the long snap. While we're pretty sure most of the people who request that are actually joking, perhaps a more detailed insight can bring to light some interesting things.

With all the moves made this offseason, Jets long snapper Tanner Purdum is now the team's most senior player and with no other long snappers currently on the 90-man roster, his spot seems secure for the time being.

The long snapper is a position which doesn't seem that important until something happens in a big moment. The Jets might have been able to save half a million dollars by bringing in a first year player instead of Purdum and that player probably would have been 98 or 99 per cent flawless. However, one key mistake at the worst possible moment could cost you a win, a playoff run or even lead to people losing their jobs.

So, exactly how important is the long snapper position? What's involved other than snapping the ball? And how do we assess where Purdum stands in comparison to his peers?

Historical context

In recent times, the role of the long snapper has become increasingly specialized. Gone are the days of a back-up lineman or tight end handling the role in addition to their ongoing duties. While most of them played a dual role in college and some - like Giants linebacker Zak DeOssie - could potentially contribute in those roles at the pro level, it's widely seen as too risky. Losing a long snapper to injury could mess up a gameplan while carrying a spare one on the active roster just in case is seen as wasteful.

Most of the time, it doesn't matter. It's a thankless task, but in the NFL disastrous mistakes are rare and holders and punters are generally capable of rescuing any slight misfires. However, if they don't, the anonymous long-snapper can suddenly become an unwanted center of attention. You had one job, indeed.

Ask Trey Junkin. After a successful 18-year career which saw him toil in relative anonymity, Junkin could have retired after not finding a job in 2002. However, he jumped at the chance to sign for the Giants during the postseason. All seemed to be going well, as the Giants were blowing out the 49ers on the road, 38-14. However, the 49ers mounted a furious comeback to take the lead.

None of that was Junkin's fault, but when the Giants got in range for a field goal to potentially win the game, Junkin's crouched down ready to do what he'd done so consistently over most of the previous two decades...

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Suddenly, Junkin, with one mistake, entered his name into Giants folklore in much the same way Doug Brien is with the Jets. It would be the last time he would ever take the field for an NFL snap.

This position is all about reliability and tends to be one where you get by through limiting your mistakes. However, is it preferable to be a guy who fires perfect bullseyes 99% of the time but has one or two wayward snaps, possibly in key moments, or a guy who regularly has his snaps slightly off the mark but ultimately doesn't have any really bad ones? And what else does the role entail other than snapping the ball accurately again and again?

Let's look more into what's involved.

Punts

On a punt, the snap has to travel back about 14 yards. Apparently, the aim is to get it back there in 0.7 seconds, which - if we've worked it out correctly - is just over 40 miles per hour.

To put that in context, based on combine measurements, most pro prospect quarterbacks throw somewhere around the mid-50's in terms of miles per hour. However, Alabama's Blake Sims threw at just 42 miles per hour. So, a long snapper is firing it between their legs at about the same speed as a noodle-armed quarterback throwing as hard as he can.

It's important for the punter to catch the ball and get his kick away in rhythm. This becomes all the more apparent once you start to watch a lot of film.

The idea is supposedly to put the ball over the punter's right hip (or their left hip if they are left-footed). The punter shouldn't have to reach up or down for the ball, as this can disrupt their rhythm and/or the drop angle of the ball. Also, if you're going to miss left-to-right, it's better to miss by a couple of feet to outside of the punter's kicking leg than by a few inches to the inside because it's a lot easier to still get the kick off in rhythm if you're stepping out or across to get the ball rather than reaching back for it.

A long snapper might go through a whole season without an errant snap and the punter might have terrible numbers and draw the ire of the fans, when actually a lot of the snaps coming in are just ever so slightly off the mark and this disrupts the punter's rhythm and leads to some poor results. On the other hand a long snapper might attain notoriety by air-mailing one over the punter's head for a safety but then fires bullseyes all season long apart from that and makes the punter's job a lot easier.

Field goals

On a field goal, you need to snap the ball back eight yards and apparently it needs to get there within 1.2 seconds to avoid a potential block. It may seem odd that you need it to get there quicker on a punt where the punter has more room to work with, but a punter needs to take two steps after catching the ball whereas the kicker is already typically a half-step away when the ball is spotted. The whole process for a punt takes about two seconds on average.

This means you're taking something off the ball which makes sense given the fact that the holder is that much closer and it is imperative he makes a clean catch to get the ball down smoothly.

The holder will set a very clear target for the long snapper and shouldn't need to rotate to his right to reach back for the ball nor should he have to reach up. However, it's still possible to rescue a snap in those situations. If it's too far out in front of the holder, then reaching it and still being able to set it cleanly is virtually impossible, as you could see on the Junkin play earlier.

Purdum's progress

While there isn't really any public data on long snapper performance, going back through our analysis over the years helps us form a picture of just how reliable Purdum has been since taking over the role with the Jets in 2010.

By our count, he's snapped the ball 1,071 times so even if you can remember 11 bad snaps by him during that time, that would still be a 99% success rate. The chances are that you probably can't even remember that many. There have been some, but most have been of the slightly-off-the-mark variety that may in some cases have been a non-factor or even if it led to a missed kick or bad punt, wouldn't be something immediately obvious.

Last year there was a rare disaster, although the Jets did overcome this to win the game:

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On that play, it's clear that the ball went right through Lachlan Edwards' hands. 99 times out of 100 that would have been caught and kicked away and we'd never think about it again, but on this occasion, it came in a bit too hot for him and ended up in a touchdown. While this was still catchable, it was still a high snap and Purdum himself would be the first to admit that he was partly to blame for this too.

I believe that's the only errant snap of his career so far although maybe it was more of a passed ball than a wild pitch. He's had high snaps like that before which have been fielded well, for example.

Going back through game charts from last year, Purdum had a three game period over the middle part of the season where I had him down for a total of eight less-than-ideal snaps. These included one in particular where Edwards had to side-step to his right to field the snap and then shanked his kick out of bounds.

However, they seemed to correct things thereafter and he didn't have any more issues until the final game of the year where he had a couple of wide ones in the fourth quarter. All told, you're looking at about 10-12 negative plays over the course of the season, with about two-thirds of those being on punts and none of the ones on placekick attempts leading to missed kicks.

That three game blip in the middle of the season was perhaps an aberration as he sought to get on the same page with Edwards. One adjustment they seemed to make was that they had more snaps where the punter was aligned to the right or to the left by a couple of yards rather than right behind the center. It seemed like a couple of the inaccurate snaps Purdum had were when Edwards was directly behind him.

Looking back at earlier year's notes, it seems Purdum had fewer inaccurate snaps in most of his other seasons, although he did have one particularly rough day in his first season as the Jets missed three kicks in Cleveland and were lucky to escape with the overtime win.

Maybe 2016 was a slightly worse year for him in terms of snap accuracy, although that might be solely down to that midseason dip. For most of the year, that aspect of his role was very consistent. How on earth can we verify how it compares with his contemporaries, though?

Salaries

One good way to assess Purdum's standing within the NFL's long snapper fraternity is by looking at salaries.

At his position, Purdum's salary is in the middle of the pack, listed as 15th with just under $1 million for this year and $400K guaranteed.

Five long snappers have contracts of between $5 million and $6 million, but none of them earn more than $1.2 million a year, so it seems apparent that Purdum is viewed at close to, but not quite at that level.

How close is Purdum to pro bowl level?

As noted before, what we might not appreciate is how the slightest inaccuracy in a snap could affect the punter's numbers or lead to more missed field goals. It's therefore a good starting point when assessing the most reliable long snappers to determine whose kicking game is the best.

Baltimore, with punter/holder Sam Koch and kicker Justin Tucker, are regarded as one of the best and long snapper Morgan Cox was rewarded with his second pro bowl appearance after last season.

They group refers to themselves as the wolfpack, having been put together by John Harbaugh, who has a background in special teams.

There was a high profile mistake last year when Koch failed to handle Cox's bad snap and the Ravens missed out on a chance to kick a field goal which proved costly in a tight loss to the Steelers. However, postgame comments seemed to suggest this was extremely rare.

Then again, they also suggested that Koch was usually adept at handling inaccurate snaps, which suggests that Cox must have misfired on a few over the years. Still, Tucker was quoted as saying Cox was the best long snapper in the league when he was named to the pro bowl.

In a 2014 story for the Jets Official Site Nick Folk claimed that there was only one kick attempt in 2013 where the laces weren't in the perfect position, implying that Purdum only made one mistake which the holder was unable to rescue.

So, maybe Purdum is on a similar level to Cox in the placekicking game, although snapping for punts could be a different story.

According to PFF, Jonathan Weeks had just two inaccurate snaps on punts all year and Jon Dorenbos had no bad snaps on field goals or extra points, so Purdum with his 10-12 total errors, despite many of them being pretty inconsequential, still has some room for growth in terms of his snap accuracy.

How much better than the weakest long snappers in the league is Purdum?

This is a fickle league, where a couple of errant snaps could feasibly see you cut and replaced. It happened to rookie Kameron Canaday last year. His bad snap in week one led to new Jet Chandler Catanzaro's game-deciding miss against New England and then this happened in week two...

Canaday was released two days later and his career might be over if he doesn't win a job this summer. He'll head to camp to battle for a job with the Steelers.

Purdum has avoided such high profile mistakes, so clearly he's reliable enough to be in the league. However, how much better than some of the guys at the other end of the scale is he?

This article from the midway point of the 2015 season suggested that Kansas City's James Winchester had been inaccurate on 11 snaps in eight games. That suggests Purdum's 10-12 bad snaps in a 2016 season that may have been a down year wasn't too bad.

This great article from Arrowhead Pride (with a terrific last paragraph) looked into the Winchester situation in more detail as there were more issues with the field goal unit after the bye week and they pegged him with another five bad snaps in three more games that they analyzed. So that would be 16 in 11 games. While we don't have any data for the other five, Purdum was clearly better than this in 2016.

However, Winchester did retain his job and apparently fared a lot better in 2016. Still, it gives us some idea of the difference between having a bad long snapper and having one who is reliable enough to be considered in the middle of the pack like Purdum, who was ironically with the Chiefs before he became a Jet.

Life after Dearth

Purdum replaced long-time Jets verteran James Dearth when he became the team's long snapper in 2010. Dearth was never a pro bowler, but Mike Westhoff and Herm Edwards were huge fans of his. How does Purdum compare to his predecessor?

Watching footage of Dearth, it seemed like his consistency was better than Purdum in terms of delivering consistent bullseyes, particularly on punts.

It's possible he was starting to slow down or become less consistent though. The Jets had three punts blocked in his last four years with them, after only having one blocked in his first five. For context, they've had five blocked in Purdum's seven seasons.

Also some uncharacteristic mistakes started to creep in during his final year. He had a bad snap leading to a missed field goal against the Bucs, then had a really rough game in week 15 against the Falcons. The Jets messed up three easy field goals in a game they eventually lost 10-7 in a game best remembered for Rex Ryan crying in the post-game presser because he erroneously thought they Jets' playoff hopes were over.

A high snap led to a blocked kick and then he had two others that holder Kellen Clemens had to reach back for, including this one:

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This was very much an aberration for the extra-reliable Dearth though, although it was a sign the end was near. He was let go by the Jets, released in final cuts by Washington and then got injured almost as soon as he arrived in San Diego. New England gave him a shot the following year but he didn't make their team and that was his last NFL stop.

So far, we've focused almost entirely on snap accuracy, but what else is involved in a long-snapper's responsibilities?

Blocking

When the Jets made the decision to persevere with Purdum in place of Dearth, Mike Westhoff suggested he was impressed with Purdum's snapping but a little concerned with how he'd cope as a blocker.

By October, Westhoff had been quoted as saying he was pleased with how Purdum had worked hard so he could handle those situations.

However, it's still an area where he is challenged from time to time. According to game charts for 2010 to 2014, Purdum was at least partially to blame for interior pressure that led to four punt blocks, one deflection, one that was nearly blocked and a game tying field goal attempt that was blocked.

Purdum is basically the same size as Dearth, but was occasionally unable to get back into his stance and anchor himself in time, so a rusher was able to either run over him or slip between him and one of the guards.

This may be an area where he's shown some improvement though, as over the past two seasons, he was partially to blame on a blocked field goal and one play on a punt where the punter still got the kick off.

Tackling

Tackling isn't usually a major part of a long snapper's role. Purdum has been credited with four tackles since taking over the Jets job in 2010, although our charting indicates he was in on a few more. Cox has just two and Dorenbos also has four in the same time period.

Jon Condo, a former pro bowler with the Raiders, has 21 tackles in his career, according to PFR, not to mention four fumble recoveries. Dearth had 20 tackles in his career too.

Missed tackles on special teams are often a sign that a player is getting in a position to make a play and can serve a positive purpose in terms of slowing a runner up. However, Purdum has had just one of these in the past two years, anyway.

Penalties

Penalties can be an issue for long snappers, with illegal snaps or holding in kick rush situations being the main situations where a penalty can arise. Purdum hasn't been penalized so far in his NFL career. Dearth had just one penalty as a Jet - a holding call in 2003.

Interestingly, despite being the AFC pro bowl representative last year, Cox has been flagged five times in his career, including twice for holding in 2016.

Injuries

The Jets have been blessed with good health at the long snapper position since Dearth took over the role in 2001. He played 144 regular season games in a row and Purdum will carry a streak of 112 into this season.

Here's a good article with several recent examples of just how disruptive an injury to your long snapper can be.

In terms of the Jets' current roster, they have Jason Vander Laan who trained as a long snapper prior to last season's draft, but he hasn't worked at that position in practice and is probably a long-shot to make the roster anyway.

If you have someone capable of doing it in an emergency, that's great, but it's unlikely to be a primary consideration. Dalton Freeman is an example of someone the team has carried as a back-up lineman who would also have been capable of long-snapping in a pinch but was never required to.

Other contributions

As noted, the days of long snappers contributing elsewhere seem to be over. However, this article would be incomplete without mentioning the fact that Dearth moonlighted as a back-up tight end in 2001 and caught three passes, including one for a crucial fourth quarter touchdown as the Jets came from 14-3 down to beat the Bengals.

Conclusions

Without putting a stopwatch on and individually charting every long snap made around the league, it's difficult to assess accurately who is the best.

As a general rule, teams seem to subscribe to the view that if you can find yourself a reliable one, then it's worth sticking with that guy rather than expending too much energy looking for a slight upgrade.

That's where the Jets find themselves with Purdum, who is now the lone remaining Jet to have played the last time the team reached the postseason. Based on what we've learned today, he might not quite be among the league's best, but the Jets seem to be significantly better off than they would be with a replacement level player.

Investigating this in-depth gives a greater understanding of how integral to the success of the kicking game this role is and hopefully the Jets will benefit from the fact that Edwards and Purdum have already had a year to get comfortable with one another.

The Jets will need Purdum this year. After all, it's not just losing streaks that are going to need to be snapped.