Why did the Patriots draft long-snapper Julian Ashby?

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Quick-hit thoughts and notes around the New England Patriots and NFL:

1. Ashby’s niche: The depths of Mike Vrabel’s roster overhaul to build a Patriots team in his image, with nearly 50% turnover this offseason, extended to one of football’s most often overlooked positions.

Longtime long-snapper Joe Cardona, one year after becoming the league’s highest-paid player at the position, is out.

Vanderbilt’s Julian Ashby, the first snapper selected in the NFL draft since 2021, is in.

Moving on from Cardona further cleared a path for a new era of player leaders to emerge in Vrabel’s first season as head coach. Cardona, who has since signed with the AFC East rival Miami Dolphins, had been New England’s longest-tenured player (since 2015) and was a team captain in 2024.

The change also opens the door for the 22-year-old Ashby, one of the most intriguing snapping prospects in recent years, who had NFL special teams coaches abuzz in the spring.

To understand why, and what led the Patriots to use a late seventh-round selection on him (No. 251 of the 257-pick draft), it takes a deeper dive into what helps define one of the game’s most specialized positions.

“When you’re working out for a third of the NFL [before the draft], you know you must be pretty good,” Vanderbilt special teams coach Jeff LePak told ESPN. “I knew that he was special and it was cool to see the guys in the NFL realize that as well.”

What makes the 6-foot-1, 231-pound Ashby special, according to LePak, is a unique combination of athleticism, consistent speed and accuracy of snaps on punts and field goals (e.g. laces out), work ethic, tackling ability and a team-first approach that included a faith-based leadership role for the Commodores.

“Julian throws a really, really consistent ball. It’s going to be a nice tight spiral and it also gets back to the punter very, very quickly, so that lowers our operation time to a point where your punter is catching it faster, so his transition to actually punting the ball gets off quicker, which gives the rush team less time to get there and try to block a punt.

“Julian’s accuracy makes it easy for the punter on his long snaps, and easy for the holder on the short snaps. We had a really good year last year field goal kicking and punting, and a lot of that was due to him. We have really good punters and kickers, but when they don’t have to worry about a bad snap or misplaced snap, it makes their job so much easier.”

The ideal time from snap to punt is two seconds or less, according to LePak. Longer than that leaves a team susceptible to a block. The sweet spot for field goals is about 1.25 seconds.

Ashby joins rookie kicker Andy Borregales (sixth round, No. 182) and punter/holder Bryce Baringer (2023 sixth round) as the Patriots’ likely operation this season.

It is rare for a team to have three specialists who all entered the NFL as draft picks. Specific to Ashby, Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf said the team wasn’t convinced it could sign him after the draft, in part because he took a predraft visit to the Bears and privately worked out for 10 teams (including a Patriots contingent led by Vrabel).

So they used the 10th of their 11 overall picks to bring him aboard and hope they’ve secured the position for the foreseeable future.

It’s been a quick ascent for Ashby, who grew up in Georgia and began snapping as an eighth grader at the suggestion of his high school coach Rod Twyman. He later attended Furman University for three seasons before transferring to Vanderbilt in 2024 as a graduate student in engineering.

“He was only here for a year but had such an impact on our team,” LePak said, adding that Ashby also won an award for his community service.

“He came in and got to know all the guys on the team and meshed really well with everyone based on his hard work and dedication to his craft. That made it really easy to take him in and for him to fit into the mold and fabric of our team.”

2. Steelers matchup ‘elite’: When the Patriots’ schedule was revealed in May, the Week 3 home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers was one of two the team’s ticket office put in its “elite” category for variable pricing (along with the home opener vs. the Las Vegas Raiders). That made it the most valuable ticket of the season.

Since that time, the Steelers have added quarterback Aaron Rodgers and traded for cornerback Jalen Ramsey and tight end Jonnu Smith, and the Patriots announced that is also the team Hall of Fame weekend with the induction of Julian Edelman and Bill Parcells.

An “elite” matchup becomes that much more so, perhaps drawing CBS’ top broadcast team of Jim Nantz, Tony Romo and Tracy Wolfson for the first time in two years.

3. Jonnu post-Patriot: Smith’s career took off after his 2021-2022 seasons in New England, which is a stark reminder of the offensive decline in Bill Belichick’s final years as coach.

After the Patriots traded him to the Atlanta Falcons halfway through his four-year, $50 million contract, Smith totaled a career-high 50 catches for 582 yards and then took it a step further last year in Miami when he earned a Pro Bowl berth after catching 88 passes for 884 yards.

4. Playoff odds: With an improved roster and the NFL’s third easiest schedule based on 2024 win percentages (opponents had a .429 mark), is it a realistic expectation that the Patriots could be in the mix for a playoff spot?

According to ESPN Analytics, the team has a 32% chance to qualify, which is 12th in the AFC.

5. Did you know? Part I: Longtime Cardinals snapper Trey Junkin (281) has played the most career games of anyone at the position. Current Panthers snapper JJ Jansen, who entered the NFL undrafted out of Notre Dame in 2008 and has been in Carolina since 2009, is tied for the second longest streak at 260 games, with former Lions snapper Don Muhlbach. Cardona played in 160 regular-season games and 13 playoff games in New England.

6. Did you know? Part II: Of the 90 players on the Patriots’ roster, only 47 were with the team last season (52%).