ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Joe Fortunato and Mitchell Fraboni are not only in competition to become the Broncos’ new long snapper, they are friends from the long-snapper circuit.
Yes, there is a long-snapper circuit where the unemployed specialists bounce from annual special teams camps in Arizona to NFL minicamps to alternative professional leagues to Tuesday tryouts and back to the annual special teams camps in Arizona.
“I’ve known Mitch for like 5 years now,’’ Fortunato said at the Broncos’ locker he was given Tuesday. “We did all the same camps together. It’s been pretty wild. Pretty wild week, I’ll tell you what. Best week I’ve had in a while.”
“Yeah we’ve been friends for a long time,’’ Fraboni said at his locker located on the other side of the locker room. “We said it the other day when we were out snapping, we were like, ‘man we used to do this at camp.’ We’d warm up together. We’d see each other all the time.”
Fraboni and Fortunato, Fortunato and Fraboni are the featured competitors in a one-week audition to see who will replace the injured Jacob Bobenmoyer and snap punts, extra points and field goals for the Broncos in their game Monday night against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. Bobenmoyer is out four to six weeks following surgery to repair a broken thumb.
So the one-week competition could lead to a six-week job providing the job is well-done.
What’s involved in evaluating a long-snapping competition?
“The same things that go into every punt and field goal: Accuracy, consistent snaps, blocking assignments,’’ Fraboni said.
While Fraboni and Fortunato have been on NFL offseason rosters, neither has snapped in a regular-season game. Is there a way to measure calm, cool and collected composure in a practice?
“I truly wish there was for every position,’’ said Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett, himself a college long snapper. “A very, very intelligent man that coached for a long time named Richard Mann used to always tell me, ‘A guy looks good, but once you get in front of 80,000 people with the cameras on him, things change’.
“I don’t think we will ever know 100 percent. I know that we have two guys here that we want to see compete and how they go after it to see who is going to be that guy and we will find out on Monday.”
Fortunato is large by long-snapper standards at 6-foot-5, 240 pounds. He’s also 28, which means his journey has been longer, and more difficult, than most. Undrafted out of Delaware in 2016, Fortunato has had tryouts or roster looks with the Eagles and Colts in 2017; Falcons in 2018; Giants in 2019; Cowboys in 2020 and Packers in 2021.
Why keep going?
“I’m getting better, I keep getting opportunities, I can’t give up yet,” he said.
Squeezed into year-end training and abbreviated NFL looks, Fortunato would work with the family business where he’d load a truck with drywall and drop off the supplies at houses, landscaping for a friend and give long-snapping instruction to a young prospect.
“But I just knew that once I committed to finding a job this is what it was going to be for me,’’ he said. “The motivation and dream never went away. Luckily I got the support from my parents and my girlfriend, otherwise this gets pretty tough. It’s been really tough this past year.”
Finally, there were two workouts with the Broncos this season – once in August and the other Tuesday.
“I stayed ready the whole time and got the call out of nowhere on Monday to come in here and work out with five other dudes,’’ Fortunato said. “Had a pretty solid day, I guess. Now here I am competing this week.”
Fraboni, less than two weeks shy of his 26th birthday, was undrafted out of Arizona State in 2016. His professional career began with the Alphas and Conquerors of The Spring League. Nothing speaks to the long-snapper circuit like the Alphas and Conquerors. It paid off as it led Fraboni to roster time with the Houston Texans and minicamp looks with the Chicago Bears and Arizona Cardinals.
This spring he long-snapped for the Pittsburgh Maulers of the USFL.
“That was a great experience,’’ Fraboni said. “I had Kirby Wilson as my head coach. I had Marc Hull was my special teams coordinator. Great dudes. Loved the coaching staff, my teammates.’’
For now, both Fortunato and Fraboni are on the Broncos’ practice squad where they are making $11,500 for the week. The chosen one for Monday against the Chargers will draw a one-week salary of $39,167.
That, and the NFL dream, is worth hanging in for.
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