Ted’s Talk: An underrated Player to Watch at Seahawks Training Camp

Yes, this is seriously an article about an undrafted free agent long snapper – which might not sound like the most interesting subject but stick with me here. What if I told you Chris Stoll was the only long snapper on the Seattle Seahawks roster and will be heavily relied on even though he’s never taken an NFL snap before?

Now that I’ve got you hooked, how many long snappers can you name by memory? It’s probably a short list – and that’s for a very good reason. You don’t want the long snapper to be a conversation piece. If he is, that likely means balls are sailing over your punter’s head.

An NFL team’s long snapper should be someone you don’t have to think about because the snap is always in the perfect position. Tyler Ott manned that position for the Seahawks from 2017-2021 and was a forgotten man (in a good way) throughout his tenure in Seattle. He injured his shoulder and was placed on IR prior to the 2022 season. Do you remember the name of the guy who took his place and played the whole season without issue? It was 33-year-old Carson Tinker, who debuted in the NFL with Jacksonville in 2013.

So, if Ott is healthy enough to try out for other teams (including the LA Rams) and Tinker was fine last season, why are the Seahawks eschewing both of those options for UDFA Chris Stoll? The most likely reason is that he’s younger and cheaper.

Also, Stoll is pretty good. I mean, if you’re going after a new long snapper, you might as well get the best one.

Watch Stoll make a heads-up play keep the ball out of the endzone. Long snappers are people, too!

Stoll’s proficiency snapping a football actually goes back to high school where he was a two-time Prokicker.com All-American long snapper as a junior and senior. He’s been doing this for a very long time at a very high level, so it makes sense that Seattle is putting all their eggs in the Chris Stoll basket during training camp to give him every opportunity to keep the long snapping job.

And he might be able to hold that position down for a very long time. Stoll will turn 25 during his training camp this season, which would be concerning if he played pretty much any other position. However, as a long snapper, he could legitimately have at least another 10 years or more ahead of him in the NFL. Perusing the current long snapper contracts in the NFL shows plenty of players in their mid and upper 30s still snapping the ball on their current teams.

Without competition this offseason, Stoll is being counted on to prove that he should be the long snapper for the Seahawks for this season and (hopefully) beyond. As long as footballs don’t start sailing over Michael Dickson’s head, we probably won’t think about Chris Stoll very much. And that’s a good thing.