Long Snapper Tanner Purdum set to Return

[JetNation]

By Glenn Naughton

 

Having already locked up several of their own free agents in Ben Ijalana, Josh Martin and Corey Lemonier, the Jets can now add long snapper Tanner Purdum to the growing list of roster spots filled in the past 48 hours.

We have re-signed LS Tanner Purdum.

DETAILS → https://t.co/ifXmXFdb6W pic.twitter.com/X1vrI1Q2HH

— New York Jets (@nyjets) March 11, 2017

This will be Purdum’s eight season in Green and White.

 

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[jetfan39]

good signing.  you never hear his name in a game which for his position  is a good thing

[DMan77]

It's a position that won't win you games, but one where you can certainly help the team lose if you're not competent. 

[BroadwayJoe12]

Get out your notepad and pencil children and take notes, this is exactly how you build a winning culture. Ground up. 

[Sarge4Tide]

Good move, obviously

[Jetdawgg]

Jets  are playing it close to. The vest. This team is starting to deal with reality football

[Warfish]

We just gave another guy a three year 1.7M contract as a Long Snapper.

We now have three long snappers on the roster.

We're snapping our way to glory!

[SAR I]

4 minutes ago, Warfish said:

We just gave another guy a three year 1.7M contract as a Long Snapper.

We now have three long snappers on the roster.

We're snapping our way to glory!

Ryan Fitzpatrick was paid $2.3M for 31 touchdowns. 

We still need a personal punt protector. 

SAR I

[Embrace the Suck]

1 hour ago, JetNation said:

Inspiring. Simply inspiring.

[Gastineau Lives]

This is how you build championships. When you know you're going to be punting like a mother****er, you go out and sign your ******* longsnapper.

[TuscanyTile2]

I wonder if we could trade him for a 2018 2nd rounder.

[TuscanyTile2]

http://www.thephinsider.com/2014/8/21/5945187/an-in-depth-look-at-long-snappers

[TuscanyTile2]

 

[TuscanyTile2]

http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2015/12/15/10054476/nfl-long-snappers-the-most-secretly-irreplaceable-player

The NFL's secret disaster scenario is an injured long snapper

Sunday afternoon, the Raiders scored a touchdown to take a 15-12 lead on the Broncos and made the odd decision to go for a two-point conversion. Fans were upset, since there's pretty much no reason being up five is better than being up four, whereas there's a pretty big reason being up four is better than being up three. However, an explanation came shortly: Long snapper Jon Condo had hurt his shoulder recovering a fumble, and wasn't available to make the snap on the extra point.

This, however, led to a new wave of confusion. Why didn't the Raiders have somebody besides Condo capable of snapping the ball on the extra point? How does an NFL team not have a backup at every position -- especially one seemingly so simple as the long snapper, who just has to snap the ball? Why couldn't the team's starting center go in and snap -- that's what centers do, right?

In the wake of that confusion, I would like to take a moment to appreciate the long snapper. The long snapper has what appears to be the easiest job in football. They only play for a few snaps a game, and when they do, they have one job. And it seems like a simple job: They just throw the ball between their legs.

But what long snappers do is actually rather difficult. It only looks easy because NFL long snappers often go entire seasons without a bad snap. But their job is so different from everybody else's, when they get injured, there is often nobody on the roster capable of filling in. In fact, it's often disastrous:

 

• In 2012, Oakland's Jon Condo got a concussion and had to leave the team's Week 1 game against San Diego. Travis Goethel, a rookie linebacker who hadn't snapped in a game since high school, filled in. He failed massively. His first snap skipped to Shane Lechler, who bobbled it and was tackled. On the second, Lechler lined up just 12 yards back to make the snap easier, but the punt was blocked. On the third, the ball bounced multiple times and was never cleanly fielded. San Diego would kick three field goals after the snapping failures, and won by eight points.
• In 2008, Pittsburgh's Greg Warren tore a knee ligament against the Giants. Multi-time Pro Bowl linebacker James Harrison filled in, his first ever game action at snapper. His only snap sailed over punter Mitch Berger's head for a game-tying safety. The ensuing free kick gave New York the ball at their own 47-yard line, and they scored a game-winning touchdown on the short field.
• When long snappers do get injured, teams often go to great lengths to avoid playing their backups. Washington's Nick Sundberg broke his arm in 2012 during the first half of a game against the Saints. He PLAYED THE SECOND HALF, because a long snapper with a broken arm is often better than a non-long snapper with two completely intact arms.

Sometimes, emergency snappers do fine. Haloti Ngata successfully snapped on an extra point after Baltimore snapper Morgan Cox tore his ACL. College long snapper Jared Allen has filled in a few times with no problems. Rob Ninkovich, who was once used primarily as a long snapper by the Saints, subbed in for an entire game for the Patriots against Green Bay in 2014. But the situations where long snapper injuries go smoothly are about as common as the ones where it leads to chaos.

I don't mean to say long snappers are irreplaceable in general. There are a lot of capable long snappers, and only 32 NFL jobs. But if a snapper gets hurt in the middle of a game, there generally isn't anybody to turn to.

A team with an injury at most positions will still try to do the same things, just slightly worse. Every team has a backup quarterback who plays quarterback in practice day in, day out. Kickers aren't great punters and punters aren't great kickers, but if a kicker or punter gets injured, the other guy typically can fill in passably well. Even in freak situations where every last offensive lineman on a team gets hurt, a team will turn to its blocking tight end, whose job is primarily blocking anyway, to play lineman.

 

Nobody has a job similar to what the long snapper does. No, not even centers. The shotgun snap is a rather light one-handed toss. A long snap is a two-handed throw. They're not the same motion at all. And the cost of a failed snap is rather high. If the snap is too slow, the kick will get blocked, which is a very bad situation. If the snap isn't accurate enough, there won't be a kick at all, which is even worse. A team without a long snapper might not be able to execute any of its special teams plays at all, which could cost them huge swaths of field position and many points.

This is why long snapper became a full-time job in the first place. It used to be that NFL teams would give long-snapping duties to a "regular" player -- typically a linebacker or tight end. But unless a player practices snapping full-time, mistakes will be made. And mistakes by snappers can be bad. It's much safer to have one guy who does it right all the time. The problem with that is, teams are now often left with one capable snapper and 52 guys who haven't had to do it in a game since high school or college.

 

[TuscanyTile2]

Tanner Purdum is ranked 4th on this list of greatest long-snappers of all-time:

 

http://www.ranker.com/list/list-of-famous-football-long-snappers/reference

 

[TuscanyTile2]

Villain - can you post every long snap of Tanner Purdum's career?

[TuscanyTile2]

4 hours ago, Gastineau Lives said:

This is how you build championships. When you know you're going to be punting like a mother****er, you go out and sign your ******* longsnapper.

The game is won in the trenches.  Everybody knows that.

[TuscanyTile2]

Obviously Purdum is a legendary long snapper but this draft is apparently very deep at the position.  We could've picked one up in the 2nd or 3rd round and saved the money on Purdum.

[BurnleyJet]

7 minutes ago, TuscanyTile2 said:

 Obviously Purdum is a legendary long snapper but this draft is apparently very deep at the position.  We could've picked one up in the 2nd or 3rd round and saved the money on Purdum.

Definatly not the 2nd, we don't want him to bust out.