Apparently snaps that went everywhere except to the holder was just too much to handle for the Cincinnati Bengals coaching staff. On Tuesday afternoon, the Bengals announced that they finally released long snapper Brad St. Louis.
A 4-1 start marred by snafus in the field-goal operation that has cost the Bengals 11 points in a season they have won by an average of four points cost the long snapper his job Tuesday when the club cut Brad St. Louis after 10 seasons and 144 games.
The Bengals replaced him with Clark Harris, a first-year player who has four games of NFL experience, all at the end of last season with the Texans. After spending most of last season on their practice squad, the Texans released him on cut down day before this season started. The 6-5, 257-pound Harris spent another week on the practice squad before Houston cut him last week.
Harris was one of four non-turtle long snappers the Bengals invited last week, basically putting St. Louis on notice that he was in serious jeopardy of losing his job. When he elected to long snap a punt against the Ravens, when a seven-yard snap would have sufficed sending Shayne Graham and Kevin Huber scrambling to recover the fumble, he was rewarded by the football gods when Baltimore was called for illegal formation. However, his ten year stay have ended when another bad snap, though Huber recovered it quick enough, was partly to blame for a terrible field goal attempt.
Like St. Louis, Harris is a tight end who, if anything, has four career regular season games under his belt.
- 2007 NFL Draft: Drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the seventh round.
- September 1, 2007: Cut.
- September 2, 2007: Signed on Green Bay's practice squad.
- September 11, 2007: Cut from Green Bay's practice squad.
- November 28, 2007: Signed to the Detroit Lions practice squad.
- August 19, 2008: Re-signed with the Detroit Lions.
- August 30, 2008: Cut from the Lions
- September 17, 2008: Signed with the Houston Texans practice squad.
- September 30, 2008: Released from the Texans practice squad.
- November 5, 2008: Signed with the Houston Texans practice squad.
- December 3, 2008: Promoted to the Texans' 53-man roster (Bryan Pittman was suspended for four games).
- September 5, 2009: Waived from the Houston Texans
- September 6, 2009: Signed with the Texans practice squad
- October 6, 2009: Released from the Texans practice squad
And in a bit of irony. Who do the Bengals play this weekend? None other than the Houston Texans.