Anyone have any idea what is behind this move? It's not like long snappers are in the spotlight for much of anything except bad snaps. That hasn't been much of a problem. Rarely does a team swap a long snapper mid-season because this is a key part of your FG unit that normally you don't want to change on the fly.

 

They did this swap right after the Thur night game so there are extra practice opportunities for Gould to settle in with the new guy. The only thing I can think of is that there is some sort of suspension coming up and the Bears decided to get ahead of it and sign the new guy now while they had the 10 days between games, and maybe while Scales was available.

 

http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...35-17c9122bd148

I would assume it was either for his coverage on punts, or he was not getting the ball to O'Donnell correctly, which was causing some bad Gould kicks (ie. laces in wrong spot).

...and now we know it was performance related to some poor snaps. Now what is the "short-snap area"? I'm guessing that means for FG.

 

http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...9b-c8e4a282581e

 

Snap decision: Special-teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers explained Wednesday why the Bears made a change at the long-snapper position last Saturday, waiving eight-year veteran Thomas Gafford and signing first-year pro Patrick Scales.

 

"We had struggled a little bit in the short-snap area over the last few weeks," Rodgers said. "You always give your players a chance to try to work out of things. Thomas, a veteran guy, did a great job in some of the aspects we were asking him to do. Terrific pro.

 

"It was just one of those things that we felt like we worked a player out and felt like he was good at what he did, and we decided to make the switch."

...and now we know it was performance related to some poor snaps. Now what is the "short-snap area"? I'm guessing that means for FG. http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...9b-c8e4a282581e Snap decision: Special-teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers explained Wednesday why the Bears made a change at the long-snapper position last Saturday, waiving eight-year veteran Thomas Gafford and signing first-year pro Patrick Scales. "We had struggled a little bit in the short-snap area over the last few weeks," Rodgers said. "You always give your players a chance to try to work out of things. Thomas, a veteran guy, did a great job in some of the aspects we were asking him to do. Terrific pro. "It was just one of those things that we felt like we worked a player out and felt like he was good at what he did, and we decided to make the switch."

 

Rodgers should look in the mirror and see that he has struggled nearly all year too.

 

Hopefully we see improvements on the ST's as a whole.

 

I do understand that until we get a core of set starters, ST will be a rotation and hard to get consistency.

 

 

...and now we know it was performance related to some poor snaps. Now what is the "short-snap area"? I'm guessing that means for FG.

 

http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1...9b-c8e4a282581e

 

Snap decision: Special-teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers explained Wednesday why the Bears made a change at the long-snapper position last Saturday, waiving eight-year veteran Thomas Gafford and signing first-year pro Patrick Scales.

 

"We had struggled a little bit in the short-snap area over the last few weeks," Rodgers said. "You always give your players a chance to try to work out of things. Thomas, a veteran guy, did a great job in some of the aspects we were asking him to do. Terrific pro.

 

"It was just one of those things that we felt like we worked a player out and felt like he was good at what he did, and we decided to make the switch."

Yeah makes sense, Gould had a bunch of misses that were uncharacteristic of him, and he had a duck snort XP that almost missed as well. Supposedly, the long snapper is supposed to snap the ball in a way where it is only rotates a certain amount (like one turn) and it is much harder to catch and get laces out if ball is spinning more.

that's where we miss a guy like Patrick, he had that down to such a science it was crazy how good and how it's easy to take a good long snapper for granted till they are gone.