After parting ways with veteran long snapper Nick Sundberg this offseason, the Washington Football Team added one Saturday by drafting Michigan's Camaron Cheeseman in the sixth round (225th overall).
Cheeseman (6-foot-4, 230 pounds) appeared in 39 career games and earned special teams player of the week for his performance against Middle Tennessee in 2019. An aspiring dentist, Cheeseman was a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree and a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar.
Having opted out of the 2020 season, Cheeseman, who's first name means shrimp in Spanish, returned to Ohio to prepare for the NFL Draft. He brought a tripod for his iPod so he could watch video of himself. He then sent that film to coach Casey Casper of Kohl's Kicking, Punting, and Long Snapping.
And for good reason, he did not just practice long snapping.
"A lot of times you'll see snappers just want to keep snapping back to back to back, you may have five snaps in a minute," Cheeseman told ESPN before the draft. "That's unrealistic to how the game is. I kind of like to picture the situation. I may just stand over the side, and then I might do a little jog out to the ball. Visualize the fronts, visualize four guys on my left, four guys on my right, or five guys on my left, three guys on my right. And picture what the personnel protection is going to tell me and take my specific steps."
Cheeseman will join a specialist unit that includes punter Tress Way and kicker Dustin Hopkins.
