Welcome to The Steelers, Colin Holba!

Here are some badass pictures.

In this one, Colin is squaring up to make a very technically sound tackle.



In this one, Colin is trying to take his football home. Notice he is wearing a brace on his right leg. Dude is a warrior.



Discuss!

 

Yup and 1-3 too lol jk

 

he is a Pittsburgh steeler. therefore I am thrilled with him. I don't get the negativity. that is a position on the football team. maybe next time you see a punter have to jump 10 feet to catch a ball you will realize that lol

 

They probably could've signed him as a UDFA.

 

He's 6-4 and 248, yet, he looks like a green bean.

Best long snapper in the draft, what ever that means.

 

I'm trying to make a joke about how green beans are long and 'snap' but nothing is coming to me.

 

That works for me.

 

Haha

 

True however Warren has been pretty good for us and he was UNDRAFTED.

 

SB Nation:

Sunday night’s NFL debut for Cardinals long snapper Kameron Canaday had to be a nightmare. The Cardinals had valiantly driven to set up a game-winning field goal attempt, but Chandler Catanzaro hooked the 47-yarder well left. NBC’s announcers quickly identified Canaday’s subpar snap as part of the reason for the miss and Arizona’s loss.


Long snapping is harder than you think.
A long snapper has one job. Well, really, two jobs: To deliver the ball to the punter on punts, and to deliver the ball to the holder on kicks. (This is often also the punter.)


For a long time, teams asked somebody already on their 53-man roster to do this job — a backup linebacker or tight end.

But while a long snapper’s job is relatively easy in comparison to many football roles — they just have to master two motions and do basic blocking — it’s hard enough that somebody who doesn’t practice full-time might mess up.

If the snap is too slow, the kick could be blocked. If the snap is inaccurate, it could lead to a bad kick, or even worse, no kick at all, or a safety. If the snap’s spiral isn’t tight, the punter or holder could drop it. If the snap doesn’t rotate exactly 2.5 times in between the snapper’s hand and the holder’s hand, the laces of the ball won’t be facing in the right direction, which could cause the kick to spin off line.

Don’t believe the job is hard? Watch what happens when team’s long snappers get hurt. It often renders teams completely unable to perform any special teams plays.

So, teams decided it was smarter to use one roster spot just for a dude to long snap perfectly than to have a backup who considered it his second or third responsibility. I don’t have more recent stats, but, in 2013, long snappers played a total of two non-snapping downs in the entire NFL.

They rarely make more than the minimum salary. But if you don’t mess up, you can keep your job for years. Basically, coaches don’t have to worry about their snappers. And it’s possible not to mess up.

Retired long snapper Patrick Mannelly recalled being in college, counting every bad snap by pro snappers, so he could have an idea which teams might be willing to switch snappers in the next offseason. When he got the Bears job, he held onto it for 16 seasons.

 

This is why Warren is the longest tenured Steeler and yet every year fans think they can save money by cutting him. The guy is solid end of story. If this rookie unseat him then the pick was worthy.

 

They only signed Warren to a 1 year contract for 2017, and with his knee injuries putting him on IR in 08 and 09 they may be worried about him getting injured again at age 35, but either they will replace him with Holba saving a million this year or have him for insurance on the PS, where they could possibly lose him, I dont know what their thinking is on this position, hard to figure out at this point....

 

The steelers have been trying to find a replacement for warren for a few years now. Just havent found one.

 

we have 3 in camp as of now. i'd expect as someone said warren may have said this is his last.

 

From Bob Labriola's Asked and Answered:

I have a feeling that there is more to this than simply providing Greg Warren with competition. Allow the situation to play out over the course of the rest of the offseason before labeling the pick of Colin Holba a waste.

[...]

So what’s the big deal with Colin Holba? In college, long-snappers are afforded more protection while in the process of doing their jobs than they will get in the NFL, and so a lot of long-snappers in college only weigh around 220 pounds. That’s not big enough for the job at the NFL level, and if an NFL team would try to get by with a long-snapper who weighs less than 230 pounds, the opponents would take advantage and use that alley as a way to block punts and field goal attempts.

Holba is 6-foot-4, 248 pounds, which is good size, and he figures to be able to get bigger and stronger after being exposed to an NFL weight program. As a comparison, Greg Warren is listed at 253 pounds. I figure I’m going to have to throw the following tidbit out there a bunch over the next couple of months, but, hey, so be it: In 2015, Bill Belichick used a fifth-round pick on a long-snapper from Navy by the name of Joe Cardona. He is 6-3, 245, and he still has the job.

If you need one, and you believe there is one who’s better suited to the job, one who is more NFL ready than the other prospects, then using a sixth-round pick is worth it.