UDFA Jack Coco Packers early front-runner for long-snapper role

Even if there is a roster battle taking place at the long-snapper position, typically, that is going to fly under the radar with everything else that goes on at training camp. However, that isn’t the case if you’re the Green Bay Packers.

The Packers began the 2021 season with Hunter Bradley, who they had drafted in 2018, as their long-snapper, even though he had an inconsistent training camp. Unfortunately, those issues would continue into the season, with Bradley ranking among the worst by PFF’s grading system.

By about the halfway mark in the season, Green Bay decided to move on from Bradley in favor of Steven Wirtel, who had been signed over the summer and was on the practice squad.

However, Wirtel wasn’t any better. In fact, by PFF’s grading system, he was worse, finishing with the third-lowest grade among all long-snappers. Wirtel struggled to find consistency, with these issues on snaps being one of the contributors behind what ended up being a poor season for Mason Crosby.

Wirtel was also bowled over by Jordan Willis in Green Bay’s playoff loss to San Francisco on the blocked punt that resulted in a touchdown.

His competitor this summer has been undrafted rookie Jack Coco from Georgia Tech–and at least up to this point, it would appear that Coco is the front-runner for this job.

As Bill Huber of Sports Illustrated would note, in six of the Packers’ first seven training camp practices, it has been Coco taking the first team special teams reps on the field goal unit.

Perhaps Green Bay wants these additional looks at Coco to see what he can do, given that they’ve already seen Wirtel in action. Or maybe, he’s simply been the better player up to this point.

While it’s not always easy to know what exactly to look for in a long-snapper, a few key traits include the accuracy of their snaps, the velocity at which it gets to the holder, how they hold up as a blocker, and how quickly they can get downfield on punt coverage–an area where Coco could stand out given his background.

Standing 6’2″ and weighing 232 pounds, Coco finished his career with the Yellow Jackets as a tight end after being the team’s long-snapper from 2018 through the 2020 season.

It’s worth noting, however, that Coco was the long-snapper in college on only extra point and field goal attempts–so there may perhaps be a learning curve for him when it comes to handling punts.

When speaking with reporters before Tuesday’s practice, head coach Matt LaFleur, who wasn’t specifically talking about the long-snapper position but roster battles in general, mentioned that these camp competitions have a way of working themselves out once the preseason begins.

On Wednesday, GM Brian Gutekunst would echo similar sentiments:

"“Especially with Family Night and then the preseason games coming up, I think we’re hopefully going to get to a point where we might have an idea where we’re going to go there,” Gutekunst said via Packers.com.“With Mason (Crosby) and Pat (O’Donnell), you’ve got two guys who have done it a long time in this kind of weather, so really the snappers are the two guys we’ve got to make sure they can handle that as well.”"

In practice, this is a two-man competition currently taking place, but as Gutekunst would confirm, Wirtel and Coco aren’t only competing against each other but also against any long-snappers around the league who may end up being cut when rosters are trimmed to 53 players.

This is common practice when it comes to specialists and something we saw just last season with Corey Bojorquez, who wasn’t acquired until just before the regular seasons began.

What we’ve seen through the first week of training camp practices isn’t the be all end all by any means–but it isn’t meaningless either. And right now, based on playing time with the starters, Coco may be the leader in the clubhouse for this starting job, but there, of course, is still a long ways to go.