Cole Mazza has won the job as the Los Angeles Chargers’ long snapper.
On Tuesday, the Chargers released Mike Windt, who had handled the long snapping for the NFL team for the previous nine seasons.
“It was not so much what Mike did. Cole did an outstanding job,” Chargers coach Anthony Lynn said in explaining Windt’s release during his Tuesday press conference. "He’s been here from Day 1 in the offseason program, and he snapped in some big games in college. I wanted to see him snap some in the NFL, and he’s just done an outstanding job.
"We appreciate what Mike did. Mike's one of the most consistent snappers. Been around for a while. But, you know, it's the NFL. We made a change."
Mazza signed with Los Angeles on April 8 after serving as the long snapper for the Birmingham Iron of the Alliance of American Football this year before the league folded.
Mazza handled the long-snapping duties for Alabama from 2013 through 2016 and was never charged with a bad snap in 583 attempts.
Except for former Athens High School standout Philip Rivers, the Chargers' quarterback, Windt was Los Angeles' longest-tenured player.
Lynn said the Chargers released Windt 11 days ahead of the deadline for preseason rosters to be cut to the regular-season limit to allow him a greater opportunity to find another spot in the league.
“You don’t want to wait to the last cut to release a veteran if you think you’re going to release him,” Lynn said. “Hopefully, we did Mike a favor.”
Windt had two seasons remaining on a four-year, $4.41 million contract. He had a $930,000 base salary for the 2019 season.
Mazza signed a three-year, $1.775 million contract with the Chargers. He’s due $495,000 in 2019.
“While long snapper is often an overlooked position, Mike’s dependability and consistent performance was always heavily valued by coaches and teammates alike,” Chargers general manager Tom Telesco said in a statement released by the team. “On behalf of everyone in our organization, I want to thank Mike for all the contributions he made, both on and off the field, during his nine-year career with the Chargers.”
Los Angeles will play the Seattle Seahawks in the third of its four preseason games at 9 p.m. CDT Saturday. NFL Network will televise the game.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.