What about long snapper?

Posted on by

April 22, 2021

by Steve Thomas

Can someone please explain to me why Nick Sundberg was sent packing without a replacement being signed?  Lost in the shuffle of the offseason is the fact that the Redskins Washington shoved their long-time long snapper out the door without any indication of the plan for the position for next season.  To date, the team has not signed a free agent replacement and we’ve heard nothing about even any visits from other candidates for the job.

Sundberg was with Washington from 2010 through 2020.  A trip through team history will tell you that The Red Snapper, Ethan Albright, preceded Sundberg in the job from 2001 through 2009, meaning that long snapper has been one of the few positions, perhaps the only position, on the team that has seen stability for two decades.

Personally, I can’t remember a bad snap by Sundberg, at least not without going back and really studying all of his film.  Sundberg is only 33 years old and didn’t seem to be slowing down at all, and he was a great ambassador for the team in the community.  Plus, the free agent market is pretty barren – here’s Spotrac’s list of available free agents besides Sundberg:

  • Matt Overton, 6’1 / 242, Seahawks (2007, 2010), Colts (2012 – 16), Jaguars (2017 – 18), Chargers (2019), Titans (2020)
  • Anthony Kukwa, 6’3” / 221, Raiders (2017), Chargers (2018), Texans (2020 – 21) (all offseason or practice squad time)

I’m not going to pretend to have researched either of those players, but neither strike me as a dramatically better option than what Washington already had.  At this point, I can’t imagine that Rivera and company are banking on finding a pro-ready snapper via the free agent route, all things considered.  Are they? Surely not.  Now, they don’t even have one on the roster.  Is the plan to allow one of the team’s centers, Chase Roullier or Tyler Larsen, to have the job?  That’s possible, but seems unlikely.  So what’s the plan here, Ron?  And what was so wrong with Sundberg?

In order to get an expert opinion on this situation, I spoke with Chris Rubio of https://rubiolongsnapping.com/, who is one of the top long snapping coaches in the country.  In fact, Chris coached Sundberg years ago.  According to Rubio, there’s nothing wrong with Sundberg’s play, and he feels that Sundberg, like many long snappers, simply got caught up in a salary cap dump.  Sundberg, an 11 year vet, made $1.2M last season, and the team is bound by CBA rules to pay him at least the veteran minimum.  According to Rubio, many NFL long snappers end up forced out for financial reasons and not for performance reasons.

Who are the long snappers to watch out for in this year’s draft?  Fortunately, Rubio had a list:

  • Thomas Fletcher, 6’2” / 231, Alabama
  • Ryan Langan, 6’1” / 225, Georgia Southern
  • Cameron Cheeseman, 6’4” / 230, Michigan

We’ll cover each of those players in more detail in our upcoming draft preview of the specialists next week.

Now that Washington has a major need at this position, it seems pretty likely that Rivera might either use a pick on one of them or sign one as an undrafted free agent, and if it ends up being Fletcher, Langan, or Cheeseman, Washington may be in good hands for the foreseeable future.