Attention mongers: the Commanders did not cut the Cheese.
Camaron Cheeseman is still Washington’s long snapper, as the team worked out five possible replacements Tuesday but decided, per Nicki Jhabvala, to stick with the status quo…and it’s a decision Brian Mitchell understands as putting the incumbent on notice.
“I figure this is a situation where you basically have put him on notice right now, you know what I'm saying?” BMitch said. “He knows that he better get his stuff corrected, because he was good at one point. He was very consistent at one point. But I think they also know if something goes wrong, which one of those guys they're calling.”
“Yeah, I think this is very much an ‘okay, this is kind of your last warning here,’ and I think should something else happen, and the snap issues continue, you will find out that Cheese has an injury and one of these guys will be brought in,” JP Finlay replied.
The dilemma is that long snapper is not a position you carry two of on your active roster, so you can’t make an in-game or even week-to-week decision, and it’s tough to carry one on the practice squad, even – so if a move is made, it’s going to be made.
“You probably don't want to release Cheeseman, because maybe he would get snatched up,” JP said. “You’re either gonna have to release him or put him on IR, maybe short-term IR, but you could put yourself in a situation like a few years ago, when they signed Chris Blewitt, but then he was terrible and they had to find somebody else. I don’t know enough about these guys, and maybe they’ll come to town and be fine, but it’s possible that you sign one of these dudes and he’s terrible.”
JP went into how, when you make any move – firing a coach, for example – the question of ‘who are you going to get?’ is more important than the move itself, and that’s maybe where the Commanders are with their long snapper.
BMitch, however, still thinks it’s just like the extra kicker in camp: an outward sign that things need to improve, or else.
“If they had to bring in people because it's been so bad, firing him shouldn't be an issue – but the thing is, just like they brought someone in to compete against (Joey) Slye in camp, you could’ve had somebody to compete against Cheeseman at camp,” Brian said. “If they felt it was so bad, why wait until now? My whole thing is they put him on notice, and now, they know if something goes wrong, we already worked out five people and have two they are willing to reach out and sign, and if this doesn’t get corrected in the next couple weeks, he’s out of here.”
JP agrees there’s a little window to look at the big picture, and with games against Buffalo and Philadelphia next, it’s less likely a bad snap or even two is a huge difference maker – but that could be the case against Chicago or Atlanta in early October.
“If I’m the CEO of this thing, no way. Are we gonna play Chicago with problems in our field goal operation? Because that is a very winnable game where we cannot afford to be leaving points on the field,” Finlay said. “So to me, that’s almost a good week to let him go.”
JP then told a story of why he was in a low-level math class as a freshman at Maryland, and how that was a wake-up call for his academic life – and maybe that’s the situation for Cheeseman.
“I think this is get it done, or you’re out,” BMitch replied to that.
“We’ll see if that works, but whatever the technique, whatever the strategy change has been, time to stop it, go back to where you were,” JP added. “Just get it done.”