The Green Bay Packers are messing around with one of the most stable, but important positions on the football field. They didn't feel like they had much of choice, though. For the second time this offseason, the team signed a long snapper, this time bringing in Derek Hart to provide competition at the special team's specialist position.
Another long snapper
Hart signed a contract with the Packers on Friday evening. The 6-foot-4, 245-pound long snapper played at the FCS level in college at James Madison and joined the NFL in 2015, but wasn't drafted.
He has yet to play a single game in his NFL career, so he's hopeful his new team will provide him the opportunity to make his pro football debut.
Hart isn't the only person competing for minutes at the position, though. In January, the Packers signed another long snapper named Taybor Pepper. He is also a complete unknown at the NFL level, not getting any action during his rookie season after a college career at Michigan State that included 54 games (tied for a school record) and ten special teams tackles. There may be even more competitors to come shortly.
Forgetting a familiar face
Both Hart and Pepper were brought in as potential replacements for Brett Goode, who has been the long snapper in Green Bay since 2008.
Like the others, he got his start as an undrafted free agent when the team took a chance on him in 2008 after a failed stint with the Jacksonville Jaguars and an injury to J.J. Jansen. He has been the only person in the role ever since.
He tore his ACL towards the end of the 2015 season, though, and the team barely brought him back last year after that.
Now, the team is considering not bringing back a member of their organization for a decade. For either Hart or Pepper, that's good news, as long snappers tend to have extremely long tenures with their teams. It could be bad news for Green Bay, however, as they will be thrusting one of two people into a role who are at least a year separated from their last meaningful snap.
