See what i did there? Sorry, I’ll try to avoid using puns this post, I’m not very Goode at it anyways…
He’s very Goode at his job, never botching a snap in as long as he’s been a Packer, but can you continue to pay high veteran minimum ($900k) for a special teamer like that?
Interestingly, the Packers are one of the franchises that do, remember Rob Davis? At age 104 (fact-check later), he was still out there snapping and, somehow, was almost always the first guy down to the returner. He was like the Jeff Janis of long snappers. I’ll bet he could still snap them off, too.
The Packers signed Taybor Pepper last week (Who says Ted Thompson doesn’t sign free agents?). He’s a decade younger and about half the cost.
Long snappers really are important – no one wants to botch a potential game winning special teams play (especially in the playoffs) – but they are a very specialized bunch and, for the most part, that specialization makes them a bit fungible.
As Goode as he is, the tradeoff on salary (Taybor Pepper was signed for the minimum $465k) may be a factor. However, due to the veteran exemption, Goode’s $900k salary would only count $615k against the cap if he signed a one-year deal.
Aw heck, for the $150k cap difference, let’s stick with the proven commodity that nailed high pressure snaps twice in a row with three seconds left in Dallas.