Vikings Special Teams Discussion

Rotating between center and tackle in high school, Cutting’s ability to snap the ball was known to coaches. One day they asked him to take practice reps at long snapper and he was the starter from there.

And while neither Mannelly nor Cutting ever thought they’d be a long snapper, they grew to understand the importance of the position .

“When I was young, I watched quarterbacks and receivers but now I’ve got an appreciation for the offensive line and long snappers,” Cutting said.

Mannelly even admits as a viewer he’s more focused on the snap during a field goal attempt, rather than if it’s made or missed.

“I can’t help myself,” Mannelly said laughing. “I’m breaking down the snap, did he get the laces forward, how was the hold. I can tell you if the holder hit the spot. That’s 100% what I’m watching.”

Vikings special teams coach Marwan Maalouf said it’s become harder to find young long snappers out of college because of the necessary transition that the NFL requires.

“Blocking is so much different in college,” Maalouf said. You have these sprint punts. There’s not that many guys that are doing it from a pro style formation so it makes it harder to find these guys and you can duplicate the blocking in college so you’re really taking a chance on some guys.”

Technique/Training and Injuries
I’m sure most of us have played a game of pick up football in which we’ve snapped the ball perfectly to the quarterback and thought, “Wow there’s not much to this.”

If only that was the truth.

Long snappers spend an extended amount of time watching film of themselves, trying to imitate the perfect release point every single time. The grip, the placement of your legs, head and follow-through all factor in. Mannelly explained it in detail.

“It all starts with the grip,” he explained excitedly. “With your dominant hand you’re going to grip it like a quarterback and then you have your guide hand is on the ball a certain way pointing away from your nose like you’re shooting a basketball. Then there’s the snap. You’re throwing the ball and releasing the ball like a quarterback; you’re just doing it between the legs. Then you have to get into the technique of the body, using your butt, your legs, your hamstrings, using your follow-through. If you’re watching a long snapper from behind, I draw a triangle from the butt to each ankle and you have to hit the same release point every single time.

“There’s a ton of technique that goes into it. You can get really technical and break yourself down and understand your tendencies. There’s a ton of technique that as a casual fan you may never know but to a special team’s coach you know all about it.”

Technique varies from player to player. For instance, with the laces of the ball face down on the ground, Cutting puts his right ring finger in the second divot of the laces, and then his left hand helps guide the ball with his left ring finger on the middle seam of the football.

“It’s different for everyone. If you looked at my hands compared to some other guys, it’d be night and day,” he said.

According to Cutting, his training regimen mirrors much of what the offensive line goes through but focuses more on mobility. During practice, Cutting and the rest of the special teams unit take their reps wisely and with caution to avoid injury.

“It might sound funny to people, but it can be pretty demanding on your legs,” Cutting said. “We do a good job of monitoring that and taking a certain amount of snaps per day.”

Avoiding injury is an important part of any position but long snappers take more pride in it than most, Mannelly said. With only one designated long snapper on the roster, an injury would force a player with minimal reps into the role and that could be disastrous.

“You always find the backup guy and he’s probably at a high school level if you want to rank them,” Mannelly said. “They’ll work on it during the offseason but once the season hits, they don’t get any snaps. You know how bad your backup is, so you have to do anything and everything to stay in the game and play because you just know it can change the outcome.”

Former Vikings long snapper Kevin McDermott was injured several times in his four-year career. First in Week 16 of the 2017 season with a dislocated shoulder that forced him onto injured reserve and forced the Vikings to sign Jeff Overbaugh (Make sure to ask Coller about Overbaugh in the next mailbag). Then, most notably, McDermott lost the tip of his pinky finger in a Week Four matchup against the Los Angeles Rams in 2018. He finished the rest of the game and the rest of the season despite the injury.

With just 32 long snappers in the league, the group is a tight-knit community, Mannelly said.

“You see quarterbacks before games talking to each other, well the long snappers find each other right before the game. You always have a quick conversation. The conversation in Chicago was always about the wind and how it sucked. It’s amazing how many long snapper’s phone numbers I have,” Mannelly said.

Cutting spends nearly his entire day with kicker Dan Bailey and punter Britton Colquitt and he gets the same type of busting that you’d expect from other position players. That comes with the territory.

“You go anywhere as a specialist you’ll get made fun of a little bit and get some crap, but they’ll just poke jokes. At the end of the day they respect it, but they like to poke fun at it,” Cutting said. “[But] the atmosphere is positive which is nice because you feel like you play a more significant role than it might seem.”

It also helps when the unit is doing well, which it did during Cutting’s rookie year. Bailey finished 27/29 on field goals and a perfect 12/12 under 40 yards. Bailey had high praise for the Vikings young long snapper.

“He’s light years ahead of where I was as a rookie,” Bailey said. “I mean he’s really locked in on what he needs to do and comes to work every day ready to do that. So, I think it was a great addition and I’m definitely happy to have him on our team.”

1. Special teams are a mess

The Vikings didn’t allow a touchdown on defense Monday night and yet they still trailed before they touched the ball in the second half, thanks to a 104-yard kickoff return from Cordarrelle Patterson. Cameras caught Zimmer unleashing a thorough scolding of special teams coordinator Marwan Maalouf.

It’s easy to see why. Zimmer finally has his defense playing as he wants. His defense is capable of being a top-10 unit. But what could keep the Vikings from pulling off this unlikely sprint into playoff contention is their special teams.

That unit is a large reason why the Vikings have both the worst average starting field position and opponent starting field position. They rank dead-last in net punt average (33.8 yards) and punt return average (1.7 yards). They’ve returned six punts for just 10 yards and fumbled one of those returns. They’ve downed just six punts inside the 20 (second-worst in the NFL) and are one of only two teams that’s had two punts blocked.

Dan Bailey ranks 28th in kickoff return average, allowing 26.6 yards per return. He ranks 19th in touchback percentage.

Oh, and that’s not the full extent of their problem. Suddenly, the long snapper who they used a draft pick on two years ago has gone back-to-back games with a snap so problematic that it kept the Vikings from a point after.

“Sometimes he’s pretty good and sometimes he hasn’t been good lately,” Zimmer said of Austin Cutting.

If those numbers don’t dramatically change soon, they could keep the Vikings from reaching the playoffs. And they could cost Maalouf his job.

The Vikings won a sloppy 19-13 contest at Soldier Field where they out-gained the Bears 385-189. The only thing keeping the Bears in the game was special teams. A kickoff return touchdown, a botched extra point, and a ton of negative field position swings highlighted a dreadful night for Marwan Maalouf’s unit. These mistakes, more often than not, could be pinned on one guy: Dan Chisena.

Chisena was a surprising success story in training camp. As a wide receiver, he was at the bottom of the depth chart, but on special teams he excelled. He played more track and field than football in college, so neither his speed nor rawness were surprising. If the Vikings could hone his flashy skills as a punt gunner, he’d be worth a roster spot. In trying to move him to safety in August, they signaled their intent for Chisena to be a special teams-only player.

That means that to justify his place on the team, Chisena has to excel on special teams. That pressure, mixed with the headstrong nature of rookies in the NFL and the attention of a primetime game, combined for a catastrophic performance. Instead of the afterthought that a punt gunner is supposed to be, Chisena became a headline.

Minnesota Vikings

Signed: K Tristan Vizcaino (Practice Squad)