Charley Hughlett never set out to be a long snapper. Not many do. But here he is, the Eagles’ newest long snapper, and it’s a position where there isn’t much turnover in Philly.
He will be just the fourth since 2000 to hold that job, after Mike Batrum did it to start the century who was followed by Jon Dorenbos until 2016 and then Rick Lovato, who won’t return after being to three Super Bowls with the Eagles and winning two championship rings.
Hughlett, who is 34, is no stranger to longevity, however. He spent the previous 10 years with the Cleveland Browns but signed with the Eagles rather quickly after he was released.
“Obviously being in one place for so long you obviously fall in love with the people there and the community,” he said on a Monday video call. “So, obviously tough to leave, but as the offseason kind of progressed you kind of had a feeling and started seeing kind of the writing on the wall with what was going on.
“So, not a total shocker to be let go in the end there. Obviously extremely excited to be here. My agent just kind of handled all the business side of arriving here and everything kind of just started here in the last couple days and moved right along pretty quick.”
Hughlett’s backstory on becoming a long snapper began at Hillsborough High School in Tampa, Fla.
“I started snapping just cause the senior who did it before had graduated,” he said. “I was a tight end throughout high school, so I did it a little bit in high school. I didn’t take it seriously.”
He walked on a Central Florida as a tight end, but the dream of blocking and catching passes died early once he set foot on campus.
“Our starting snapper randomly quit right before training camp started so it was an open tryout,” he said. “That was my true freshman year. There was like two or three of us who went out for the job, and I ended up getting it.
“I wasn’t very good at it at the time, but the head coach brought me into his office and said ‘You’re our starting snapper and you’re not a tight end anymore and this is all you’re going to do.’ I was little bit caught off guard and shocked, but here I am. It worked out. Kind of happy he did that, I guess.”
It took Hughlett a bit of time to get used to it, even after college. He was an undrafted free agent of the Dallas Cowboys in 2012, but bounced around, going to the New England Patriots, Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns, and Kansas City Chiefs, before the Browns hired him for good in 2014.
“It was extremely challenging,” he said of those days. “At the same time, I could feel that I was starting to get closer and starting to build momentum toward sticking on with a team, but the moving and stuff like that is hard. Every time you get cut it’s hard, but at the same time, it built my confidence in the fact that I was starting to see that I was improving and starting to realize that I’m good enough and can do this. Difficult but also motivating at the same time.”
