How Ya Like Me Now?

According to Jose Romero over at The Times the 'Hawks have signed rookie long snapper, Tyler Schmitt. I, for one, am super stoked about the signing of the 6th round pick.

Many people questioned GM Tim Ruskell's sanity when he took this kid in the 6th, when normally long snappers are undrafted free-agents signings, not something to "waste" a draft pick on. I, however, trusted the man. I saw how horrid our long snapping was last year, which is why I defended the pick thusly in my 'Hawks '08 Draft recap.

rd.6 #189 Schmitt, again. This time it's Tyler Schmitt long-snapper from San Diego State. Some people questioned the logic of taking a long-snapper in the 6th round when they are normally picked up as undrafted free-agents after the draft. But anyone who watched the 'Hawks vs. Saints game last year knows just exactly how important a long-snapper can be.

I was vindicated by a this little video out on the always brilliant FieldGulls.com. Here you can see why, exactly, the 'Hawks felt like "wasting a pick" on this guy. His snapping is just gorgeous. After being subjected to the painful events of long snapping last year, watching this workout really gets me excited.

Seeing Tyler hit the "perfect laces" drill 9/10 times(the last he missed cuz he was pressing to be a perfect 10/10) I feel like something out of a Tex Avery cartoon. My eyes pop out of my head and grow absurdly large as my jaw hits the floor and my tongue rolls out like a red carpet. This is followed by a guttural howl of appreciation and admiration, to let 'em know, I'm diggin it.

Just look at how tight those spirals are. And he's SNAPPING the ball!!! I know most of us here at NLS couldn't dream of having a spiral that tight throwing it normally. Granted, we are a bunch of pale "indoor" kids, for the most part. Point remains, I don't think we are going to see very many botched punts/kicks this year due to long snapping. And that makes me a happy panda.

I said that the '08 Draft class was The New Mutants, and that we would have to see who is ready to contribute on the X-Men(The 'Hawks). If that's the case then Tyler is "Armor", a character from Joss "Buffy" Whedon's arc on the X-Men. A person who wasn't even a blip on the radar to join the team that made the jump to the X-Men faster than anyone would have thought, when given the opportunity. To me, my X-Men!