dtrain
12-16-2014, 03:09 PM
http://espn.go.com/blog/kansas-city-chiefs/
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Normally I don't make much of it when the Kansas City Chiefs have a practice squad transaction. They churn through a lot of players during the course of a season looking for good developmental candidates.
They apparently made a move Tuesday that caught my eye, though. They added a long snapper, Charley Hughlett, to their practice squad, according to the player's agent.
The move comes a couple of days after the Chiefs missed a pair of field goals in a win against the Oakland Raiders. The snap from veteran Thomas Gafford looked off on both of those kicks, though in each case holder Dustin Colquitt did a nice job of getting the ball down in place and on time.
Coach Andy Reid raised the issue at his news conference on Monday. He mentioned that the snap-hold-kick process was out of kilter.
"We were off just a tad and we have to get that thing back on track," he said.
Now the Chiefs sign a long snapper, if only to their practice squad. Hughlett may just be another one of those developmental candidates the Chiefs bring to their practice field. They may have seen something in him that they want to work with him during the offseason and bring him to training camp next summer.
But, given the problems the Chiefs had on Sunday and Reid's comments about them a day later, the Chiefs may have more immediate plans for Hughlett than that. It's also difficult to picture the Chiefs going with an untested snapper in an important game such as the one the Chiefs will play in on Sunday against the Steelers in Pittsburgh.
Hughlett has never snapped in a regular-season NFL game. But enough teams have looked at Hughlett since he came out of college at Central Florida in 2012.
The Dallas Cowboys twice signed Hughlett during the offseason and twice released him. The New England Patriots and Jacksonville Jaguars had him in for a look last offseason and this season the Patriots and Cleveland Browns have at various times had him on the practice squad.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Normally I don't make much of it when the Kansas City Chiefs have a practice squad transaction. They churn through a lot of players during the course of a season looking for good developmental candidates.
They apparently made a move Tuesday that caught my eye, though. They added a long snapper, Charley Hughlett, to their practice squad, according to the player's agent.
The move comes a couple of days after the Chiefs missed a pair of field goals in a win against the Oakland Raiders. The snap from veteran Thomas Gafford looked off on both of those kicks, though in each case holder Dustin Colquitt did a nice job of getting the ball down in place and on time.
Coach Andy Reid raised the issue at his news conference on Monday. He mentioned that the snap-hold-kick process was out of kilter.
"We were off just a tad and we have to get that thing back on track," he said.
Now the Chiefs sign a long snapper, if only to their practice squad. Hughlett may just be another one of those developmental candidates the Chiefs bring to their practice field. They may have seen something in him that they want to work with him during the offseason and bring him to training camp next summer.
But, given the problems the Chiefs had on Sunday and Reid's comments about them a day later, the Chiefs may have more immediate plans for Hughlett than that. It's also difficult to picture the Chiefs going with an untested snapper in an important game such as the one the Chiefs will play in on Sunday against the Steelers in Pittsburgh.
Hughlett has never snapped in a regular-season NFL game. But enough teams have looked at Hughlett since he came out of college at Central Florida in 2012.
The Dallas Cowboys twice signed Hughlett during the offseason and twice released him. The New England Patriots and Jacksonville Jaguars had him in for a look last offseason and this season the Patriots and Cleveland Browns have at various times had him on the practice squad.