Guest feature: Vikings Long Snapper Austin Cutting Never Expected to Be Here

Cutting and many other long snappers take an unusual path to the NFL

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Paul Hodowanic, better known as “Intern Paul,” is a University of Minnesota student currently working at the school’s newspaper. He has been working behind the scenes with Purple Insider since its inception in May. He has also interned with KARE-11 and the Pioneer Press. Here is his first contribution to Purple Insider as a writer….

Vikings Long Snapper Austin Cutting Never Expected to Be Here

By Paul Hodowanic

When Austin Cutting made his college visit to Air Force, he expected to be auditioning for an offensive line spot.

A three-year starter along the offensive line at Central High School in Fort Worth, Texas, that was Cutting’s primary focus. So when Air Force brought him to meet his potential position coach, he was confused when the running backs and special teams coach came to greet him.

“I’m not a running back,” Cutting recalls saying. “So would this just be for snapping?”

Cutting’s realization was a common one among players who become snappers. While Cutting spent three years as his high school team’s long snapper, those duties were ancillary to his work as an offensive lineman. He never believed a team would be interested in just his for his side skill. But that’s exactly what Air Force wanted.

“Once I heard I could go to college to long snap, I couldn’t deny it,” said Cutting, who started snapping in high school only out of necessity. “It’s not as taxing on you as some of the other positions are.”

More and more long snapping has become a position that is groomed from a young age instead of an afterthought. Elite long-snapping camps have risen to prominence in the last decade as colleges increasingly look to find high school recruits to fill a full-time snapping role rather than using a lineman or tight end who can play the position part-time.

In a move that some Vikings fans may remember, P.J. Fleck and the hometown Gophers recruited the No. 1-ranked long snapper in 2019, Brady Weeks, to Minnesota. Weeks started all 13 games his freshman year, solely as a long snapper.

“The whole landscape of the long snapper community has changed,” former Chicago Bears long snapper Patrick Mannelly said. “When I came in in college, you just found someone on the roster that could do it. But now Nick Saban will call some of these long snapping gurus, and ask, ‘Who are your top guys? Who do I need to be looking at?’ They’ll give them a scholarship and that’ll be their guy for three years. It’s great to see because now it’s a true position.”

Dreams of becoming a long snapper?

Mannelly first learned how to long snap in seventh grade after his older brother, Bernard, returned from his freshman year at Notre Dame, searching for a way to get on the field. To gain playing time, Bernard began to long snap and Mannelly tagged along. The family had a connection to Rod Dowhower, a longtime NFL assistant coach, who gave them a two-page pamphlet on how to long snap. From there, it clicked for Mannelly.

“It was something that just came naturally, and I was better than my brother all of a sudden,” Mannelly said. “So, from that point on I understood the importance of the position and took pride in being the guy on the eighth-grade team, the guy on the ninth-grade team… the starting long snapper from high school on.”

Mannelly was then recruited to Duke University as a lineman on both defense and offense as well as long snapping. He spent the entirety of his 16-year NFL career as a Chicago Bear, the longest-tenured Bear in team history.

Cutting’s journey is far less fortuitous. 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.

Austin Cutting celebrates a successful punt with his special teams unit. Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings

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.”

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