Broncos camp competition preview: Why long snapper is a position that could be worth watching

DENVER — Barring any cuts between now and the start of training camp, Jacob Bobenmoyer and Wes Farnsworth will compete for the long-snapper position this summer. The Broncos’ decision to part ways with Casey Kreiter, who handled the snapping duties for almost all of the last four seasons, is the reason why this face-off exists.

But any discussion of the long-snapper position must start with 2011 — John Elway’s first year on the job as the Broncos’ chief decision-maker in football operations.

That year, Elway inherited long snapper Lonie Paxton. Two years earlier, Paxton jumped from New England to Denver two months after Josh McDaniels made the same move to become Denver’s head coach.

Empowered to run the Broncos’ football operations just weeks before the 2009 free-agent signing period began, McDaniels signed Paxton to a contract that was audacious for a long snapper: $5.53 million over five years. The contract meant that the Broncos parted ways the reliable Mike Leach, who quickly signed with the Arizona Cardinals and remained there for seven seasons before retiring.

By 2011, Paxton’s salary-cap hit was $1,047,600, according to Spotrac.com. His projected cap figures for 2012 and 2013 saw raises of $10,000 for each year. He did well enough in 2011, as he always had.

But as Elway settled into his new job, a question rose: What if the Broncos could get the same production from the position for a fraction of Paxton’s cost?

In 2012, that meant signing undrafted rookie Aaron Brewer and giving him every opportunity to seize the job from Paxton. He did. Even though the Broncos were left with $365,200 of dead money — what was left of Paxton’s prorated signing bonus — the Broncos still saved over $291,000 under the salary cap, since Brewer had a league-minimum contract for his first three seasons.

Denver re-signed Brewer in 2015 as opposed to letting him depart as a restricted free agent, but by that point he made more than double his rookie salary. In the spring of 2016, the Broncos released him. Brewer signed with Arizona, for which he had salary-cap numbers that increased to over $1 million by 2019, according to overthecap.com.

Enter Kreiter, who played his first three seasons at the league minimum before signing a one-year deal for 2019 at $1 million. Kreiter did everything the Broncos asked of him, and even became the first Pro Bowl long snapper in team history following the 2018 season.

But once again, the Broncos didn’t want to pay seven figures for a long snapper. The New York Giants were fine with that, and signed Kreiter to a one-year deal.

Last month, it was not a move that special-teams coordinator Tom McMahon cared to discuss publicly.

“The decision is something that I’m not really going to speak of,” he said on a media conference call. “The past is the past.”

Yet the recent past also indicates that the Broncos can find excellent performance from first-contract long snappers at the fraction of the cost of a mid-career veteran.

From Paxton to Brewer to Kreiter, the Broncos have had reliable long snapping. Twice in the Elway era, their dice rolls on young, cost-controlled long snappers paid off.

Now they will try it again.

It does not matter whether Bobenmoyer or Farnsworth wins the job; the Broncos will pay their long snapper $437,500 less than Kreiter will make with the Giants (assuming he makes the team, but he is their only long snapper right now).

Both are excellent prospects.

“What I saw in Jacob and also in Wes Farnsworth, I think that we have two great, young long snappers in here,” McMahon said during a media conference call last month. “What they both showed was great athleticism. They’ve got great velocity. They have great accuracy. What sets those two apart from other guys that we looked at is their ability to cover. When you have guys that are this athletic that have kind of that defensive, linebacker tape — when you turn it on, they’re producing. That makes a big difference because now [punt-return units] have to block that player.”

But if there is an edge today, it must go to Farnsworth, because he has one training camp under his belt, having played for the Miami Dolphins during the 2019 preseason. Bobenmoyer’s only experience was with the Broncos in their 2019 rookie minicamp; he returned for a tryout seven months later and earned a reserve-future contract.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its fallout will create a training camp unlike any other in NFL history. Eleven-on-eleven work could be limited, and the preseason might be scrapped altogether. In a scenario like this, the edge could go to the player who has a bit more experience on his resume.

Consider this: In 2016, the Broncos carried two long snappers on their offseason roster: Kreiter and Nathan Theus. Kreiter had experience from two previous training camps with the Dallas Cowboys. Theus was part of the Broncos’ undrafted rookie class.

The two split the snapping chores throughout OTAs that year, but the competition ended before training camp; the Broncos waived Theus days before players reported that year. Theus’ spot was used for a linebacker who didn’t stick: Darnell Sankey.

If the rumblings about reduced roster size lead to teams arriving at training camp with as few as 75 or 80 players, this year’s snapping competition might be over before it begins. But if the Broncos keep both Bobenmoyer and Farnsworth on the roster, their duel should be one of the few true battles on a roster that appears mostly set.