New Lions Long Snapper Jimmy Landes' Trick Snap Video
Allen Park, Mich. – The Detroit Lions selected LS Jimmy Landes with their sixth-round pick (210th overall) of the 2016 NFL Draft.
Detroit Lions LS Jimmy Landes was available to media via conference call following the team's sixth-round selection. The following is a quote sheet with excerpts from his media session.
On if he was surprised to be drafted in the sixth round: "I was very surprised and I was expecting a free agency just because I know how rare long snappers rarely get drafted. I wasn't expecting anything in the draft. But, man, this is a great surprise, just what an honor to be drafted as a long snapper and just so excited that the Detroit Lions and yeah, just ready for the journey that's ahead of me."
On what Lions Special Teams Coordinator Joe Marciano told him about Lions LS Don Muhlbach and the opportunity that may be here: "He was kind of just like, 'Well, we want you to come in and just compete,' He's talked great things about Don Muhlbach and he's an East Texas guy like me, he's from Lufkin and I'm from Tyler and our high schools actually played each other when he played. I've heard he's a great guy, he's done great things for Detroit and I'm getting ready to meet him and just compete. That's what I was expecting to do, just whatever team I went to I was expecting to compete, so that's what I'm ready to come in and work hard."
On how serious he was about pursuing baseball: "I was pretty serious. Baseball was my first love, that's the reason I went to Baylor was for baseball. They offered me a preferred walk-on spot and I called the football team and said I could long snap and they said, 'Yeah, you can come do both here.' You know, I redshirted in baseball my freshman year, played football my freshman year and just did short snaps. I got into the football system, got to play, got to feel what it meant to play and so football redshirts me sophomore year and I focused on baseball and I was like, alright, now it's time to play. This is my chance to play, no more redshirt, I'm ready to get going. It was just long days of baseball and I was kind of talking to my coach and with my family and thinking I don't know if I want to spend the minor leagues, all the eight years or whatever in the minor league when I'm good at snapping. I think I just wanted to take a shot at snapping and that's when I just kind of lost my love for the baseball game and decided to focus on something that I thought I could really advance in, really, maybe, possibly make the pros in long snapping."
On how he got into long snapping: "It was my sophomore year of high school. I played center throughout middle school. My older brother is John Landes, he's three years older than me, but he was a center at the middle school and high school and so I came to the same middle school and they said, 'You're a Landes, you're going to play center.' So, I started snapping the ball one-handed to the quarterback and then I was actually snapping punts one-handed in middle school. So, I got to high school, watched the older guys, saw them put two hands on the ball, snapping punts and extra point field goals and I just put my left hand on the ball, looked through my legs and threw it back there and it was a tight spiral and it was hard so the coaches noticed that and said, 'Hey, you can play center and also long snap for us.' So, that's where my long snapping career began."
On how closely he has looked at other long snappers in the NFL: "Very closely. I notice how they're all perfect, everybody's perfect. You have to be perfect to be in the NFL. A bad snap could put the other team in a good position to score, it could make you miss a field goal. I just noticed they're all perfect. It's a snap and block and so in college, at Baylor we didn't do the snap to block, it was a snap and a release, so the second I let go of the ball I was running upfield to make a tackle. Since the season has ended I've been transitioning to the snap to the block, so that's what I've been perfecting and that's what I've noticed in the NFL is just how perfect those guys are."
On if he has studied Muhlbach: "I didn't actually. I watched Justin Snow and Jon Weeks. Justin Snow snapped for the Colts for 12 years. He went to Baylor and Jon Weeks is a snapper for the Texans and he also went to Baylor. So, those are the two guys I've been communicating with, they've kind of been teaching me the pro system, as well as my snapping coach Shane Hackney. They just taught me everything, different defensive schemes, different block schemes coming at you and so those are the kind of guys that I look at and say I need to be like them because they've lasted so long in the NFL."
On how much contact he had with different NFL teams throughout the pre-draft process: "I had a wide variety. I had contact with a lot of teams, Cardinals, Denver, Detroit, a lot of teams. It was an honor to be the only one at the Combine. I got to meet every single special teams coach in the NFL and that was a great pleasure to meet all of them. At the Senior Bowl not all the coaches were there and so at the Combine they were all there and I was able to shake hands and look them in the face and tell them who I was and they got to watch me snap at the Combine. So, that was a big honor to be invited to that and to get to meet all of those special teams coaches."
On what trick snap is he most proud of: "Trick snap? Oh you know it's the McLane. The one off the top of the McLane Stadium into the trash can on the field."
On how far away that snap was: "From the top of the third deck to the base of the field goal post. I don't know."
On how he can probably afford to do crazier trick snaps now: "Yeah, I know. That was the only one I attempted. I was thinking about going to the Ferrell Center in Waco (Texas), that's our basketball center, and snapping it into the goal, but I've just never had the time to do it. Yeah, I may. You never know, I could come out with a little Dude Perfect stuff."
On how many attempts it took for him to make the garbage can trick snap: "So, I actually made it before the one in the video. We put the trash can there and it was like my 15th try, the ball went in, it bounced out. So, we were like, 'Oh, well let's put the pylons in there.' So, my friends down on the field put the pylons in there and I did it about 20 more times. So, I'd say, yeah, 35-ish, around. I was aiming at, I had to aim at the left foul pole, the left of the field goal post. But, I aimed at the left field goal post and you can see the ball just curve to the right and it dives straight down at the last second. So, I had to try and aim it."
On what he was doing this afternoon: "I was just hanging at home in Tyler (Texas). I missed my flight to Chicago on Thursday, so I had to stay home in Tyler. But, yeah, just hanging out with family and I had some friends from Waco come in town just to be with me during this time."
On if he was invited to the draft in Chicago: "No, no, no. I was just playing. I wish."
