There's no way Lonie Paxton makes this team

[pats1]

Well, this is the 100th post of this thread.

I think it's time to come to a conclusion!

 

[shmessy]

So the backup to the backup longsnapper has a severe hand gash & doesn't f'up a snap in the Super Bowl?

I give up. Lonnie Paxton is indispensable.

Hee, hee, exactly. The "almost loss" in SB 38 had nothing to do with the fact that Smith and Muhammad were abusing Dexter Reid and Shawn Mayer in the 4th Quarter! Nawww, that wasn't all that important.

Believe it or not, along with those 4 - 8 plays per game, an ACTUAL football game takes place!

 

[MDPATSFAN]

Hey look ...the Long snappers even have their own website!

http://www.longsnap.com/

 

[patchick]

Well, this is the 100th post of this thread.

A hearty congratulations to the PatsFans community! Only the truly devoted could manage a 100-post offseason thread on long snapping.

If you just can't get enough, here's a whole site devoted to the topic:
http://www.longsnap.com/

 

[shmessy]

A hearty congratulations to the PatsFans community! Only the truly devoted could manage a 100-post offseason thread on long snapping.

If you just can't get enough, here's a whole site devoted to the topic:
http://www.longsnap.com/

Now there's some good reading. I'll now have to interrupt my reading of "The 58 Greatest Congressional Testimonies of Alan Greenspan"!

 

[patchick]

MDPATSFAN, that's just eerie. Imagine that two people actually bothered to look up that site at the same moment. We probably doubled their monthly traffic!

 

[MDPATSFAN]

I thought his site was acting a little slow. Probably the only hits he's had all year!

Anyway...lot's of good articles on the web about the "art" of longsnapping. It appears that a below average lineman can make long career for himself by mastering the skill.

Who ever posted about the blocked FG during the SB, I wonder if it had something to do with the replacement's ability to get the snap off and engage his opponent. That can't be easy.


The game has been playing on NFL network this week , I'll try and see which Panther got a hand on the ball.

 

[shmessy]

I thought his site was acting a little slow. Probably the only hits he's had all year!

Anyway...lot's of good articles on the web about the "art" of longsnapping. It appears that a below average lineman can make long career for himself by mastering the skill.

Who ever posted about the blocked FG during the SB, I wonder if it had something to do with the replacement's ability to get the snap off and engage his opponent. That can't be easy.


The game has been playing on NFL network this week , I'll try and see which Panther got a hand on the ball.

Shane Burton

 

[tombonneau]

Yes, but let's remember, new rules instated this year make it illegal for a defender to line up directly over a longsnapper.

 

[spacecrime]

A hearty congratulations to the PatsFans community! Only the truly devoted could manage a 100-post offseason thread on long snapping.

If you just can't get enough, here's a whole site devoted to the topic:
http://www.longsnap.com/

Holy cow!!! Some teams DRAFT long snappers!!!

Anyone who is upset that BB spent a fourth round pick on a kicker, consider this:

Ryan Pontbriand, who was drafted by the Browns in the Fifth Round in 2003, is the last drafted snapper to make an impact in the NFL.


FIFTH ROUND!!!!!!

I am flabbergasted.

Thanks for finding this site, Patchick. (You think it is bad we have a 100-post thread on this topic? I'm going to read the articles on the website and I'll bet I'm not the only one!

 

[spacecrime]

Hee, hee, exactly. The "almost loss" in SB 38 had nothing to do with the fact that Smith and Muhammad were abusing Dexter Reid and Shawn Mayer in the 4th Quarter! Nawww, that wasn't all that important.

Believe it or not, along with those 4 - 8 plays per game, an ACTUAL football game takes place!

Only the last play matters. Aren't you paying attention. Reid and Mayer didn't matter. Vrabel's strip sack didn't matter. AV's two missed FGs didn't matter. Fox weirdly going for two didn't matter. Branches catch to set up the FG didn't matter. Only the last play mattered.

But that means that HE HATE ME lost the game. If he had run the kick back for a TD with not time left, the Panthers would have won. AV's kick didn't matter. Only the last play matters, right?

Yes, and if its the LAST play of the game and if you make it, you win, then HELLO, it cost you the game if you miss it. That's just simple logic.

So it wasn't AV who won. It was HE HATE ME who lost.

 

[VJCPatriot]

I don't see how you guys can wax poetic and get worked up about a longsnapper. As I recall every position on the team is subject to competition, that include's Paxton's job (a very NARROW, not versatile position btw). If you can get another person that can longsnap reasonably well, I say why not cut Paxton and save yourself a spot for more talent that can affect the field more directly, LB/CB/WR what have you.

And those comparing cutting Brady to cutting Lonnie Paxton are clearly hallucinating.

 

[patsfan55]

wow, there are 12 pages here
long snappers across the country are loving this

simply put, lonie paxton is the best at what he does, and id be shocked if hes cut

 

[DaBruinz]

Only the last play matters. Aren't you paying attention. Reid and Mayer didn't matter. Vrabel's strip sack didn't matter. AV's two missed FGs didn't matter. Fox weirdly going for two didn't matter. Branches catch to set up the FG didn't matter. Only the last play mattered.

But that means that HE HATE ME lost the game. If he had run the kick back for a TD with not time left, the Panthers would have won. AV's kick didn't matter. Only the last play matters, right?



So it wasn't AV who won. It was HE HATE ME who lost.

Yeah. Great logic on your part. Your sarcasm is about as good as shmessy's.

But, hey. Keep deluding yourself into thinking that longsnappers aren't worthy of a spot on the team and can' be replaced by a regular player.

Of course. I will believe what all but 2 teams believe. That a dedicated long snapper is important to the success of a kicking and punting unit.

 

[DaBruinz]

I don't see how you guys can wax poetic and get worked up about a longsnapper. As I recall every position on the team is subject to competition, that include's Paxton's job (a very NARROW, not versatile position btw). If you can get another person that can longsnap reasonably well, I say why not cut Paxton and save yourself a spot for more talent that can affect the field more directly, LB/CB/WR what have you.

And those comparing cutting Brady to cutting Lonnie Paxton are clearly hallucinating.

Maybe because if that person gets injured on a regular play, then what do you do? People have mentioned Hochstein, but refuse to acknowledge that if Hochstein was any good, the Pats wouldn't have kept Paxton LAST year. Yet, they did. They kept Paxton. They brought Paxton back after his injury. They didn't keep McDermott. They didn't keep Kinchen.

 

[shmessy]

Maybe because if that person gets injured on a regular play, then what do you do? People have mentioned Hochstein, but refuse to acknowledge that if Hochstein was any good, the Pats wouldn't have kept Paxton LAST year. Yet, they did. They kept Paxton. They brought Paxton back after his injury. They didn't keep McDermott. They didn't keep Kinchen.

The McDermott and Kinchen examples are ridiculous and do not pertain to this. They didn't keep those two because they offered NOTHING ELSE aside from the LS specialty and they couldn't do that as well as Paxton. How many receptions, carries or crunching blocks were the Pats expecting from McDermott and Kinchen (who was close to AARP age and reluctantly came back to the NFL from his ministry in Tennessee)? You're comparing those two to Mills? Once again, I've never seen him play, but IF (a big IF) his press clippings are anywhere near accurate, he would bring far more to the Pats than either McDermott or Kinchen.

The balance could have been tilted in their favor had they brought more to the table. As I mentioned before, if someone can LS 90-95% as well as Paxton and bring other skills to the field, then I would go in that direction. But until someone can do 90-95% of Paxton's accuracy, the job should be Lonie's.

It would be a crying shame IF Mills is everything his press clippings say he is and he has to be cut because no one else on the roster except Lonie can long snap.

I forget the the name of the human bowling ball from Navy we had in last year's TC, but we sure could have used him during the season when all those RB's went down and we had to go to the sloppy seconds leftover rack for Heath ("1.5 yards and a cloud of dust") Evans. That's exactly the situation I'm talking about when I say it's a shame that a narrow specialist like Paxton has to take up a full roster space. It's a zero-sum game.

 

[spacecrime]

Maybe because if that person gets injured on a regular play, then what do you do? People have mentioned Hochstein, but refuse to acknowledge that if Hochstein was any good, the Pats wouldn't have kept Paxton LAST year. Yet, they did. They kept Paxton. They brought Paxton back after his injury. They didn't keep McDermott. They didn't keep Kinchen.

McDermott was hurt. They tried to bring Kinchen back to TC the next year, but he wouldn't come. Do you follow the Pats at all?

Hochstein: The fact that they kept Paxton last year does show that they fe\et the team would be better with Paxton than the extra roster spot. That does not mean that Hochstein wasn't good, and it means nothing for this year.

You may believe Paxton has a lock this year because he won the job last year. I don't. I think there is competition every year and the minute they can get the job done AND have a free roster spot, he is gone.

I think the odds of this happening are greatly influenced by the 54th man. I wish we had kept Kyle Eckel or Kory Chapman last year. We needed a RB agaisnt Denver to keep the Broncos for overplaying the pass. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, alas. Maybe the player that would have been the benefiicary of the roster spot was an OLinesman.

But if it comes down to keeping a great prospect vs a sixth WR or a LS, the decision could easily go to the prospect.

 

[spacecrime]

Yeah. Great logic on your part.

I thought the logic was quite good. It wasn't sarcasm. You said "When it comes down to the last play, and if they make it they win and don't make it they lose, then the last play determines who won and who lost. It is as simple as that." What was the last play of the SB? the kickoff return. And if HE HATE ME ran it back for a TD, the Panthers win. If he didn't, they lose.

Kindly tell me how that does not match your quote.

 

[shmessy]

McDermott was hurt. They tried to bring Kinchen back to TC the next year, but he wouldn't come. Do you follow the Pats at all?

Hochstein: The fact that they kept Paxton last year does show that they fe\et the team would be better with Paxton than the extra roster spot. That does not mean that Hochstein wasn't good, and it means nothing for this year.

You may believe Paxton has a lock this year because he won the job last year. I don't. I think there is competition every year and the minute they can get the job done AND have a free roster spot, he is gone.

I think the odds of this happening are greatly influenced by the 54th man. I wish we had kept Kyle Eckel or Kory Chapman last year. We needed a RB agaisnt Denver to keep the Broncos for overplaying the pass. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, alas. Maybe the player that would have been the benefiicary of the roster spot was an OLinesman.

But if it comes down to keeping a great prospect vs a sixth WR or a LS, the decision could easily go to the prospect.

Well put. To add to the Denver loss, I would add we could've used Eckel or Chapman in the KC game also. If that could have resulted in just one more win, the Pats would've been 13-3 last year (the last game farce against Miami would never have happened). We wouldn't have been on the road in the playoffs unless we had to pay Indy.

 

[Miguel]

In fact, according to Miguel's cap page, he's the highest paid LS in the history of the NFL!:

"Lonie Paxton - On February 27 Mike Felger of the Boston Herald reported that "the Pats have made Lonie Paxton the highest-paid long snapper in the history of the NFL, signing the restricted free agent to a five-year deal worth more than $3 million." Mr. Snow Angel got a five-year deal at the minimum salaries (450, 535, 540, 545, 670), with a $305,000 signing bonus and standard workout bonuses ($5,600, $5,600, $6,160, $6,160 and $6,720, respectively)."

FWIW - That was February 27, 2003. I do not know if Lonie is still the highest paid LS in the history of the NFL.

Note to self - Please add years to dates.