Julian
Ashby.
Julian
Ashby.
Vanderbilt· 6'1"· 231 lb· 4.94s 40
"New England traded up in the back of the seventh round to take the only long snapper drafted in 2025, which tells you exactly how settled the evaluation on Julian Ashby was before the process ever started."Pre-draft read
Ashby is a five-year starting long snapper who built his profile on operation time and repeatability rather than anything flashy. He fires the ball back with a tight spiral and consistent velocity, gets his head up quickly after release, and his snap-to-punt timing was among the cleanest in the class — the reason he was the only long snapper drafted in 2025.
He is more than a delivery system. At 231 pounds with real athletic testing for the position, he covers punts like a fifth gunner, breaks down in space and finishes tackles rather than escorting returners. Protection is the same story: he snaps and re-fits without a wasted step. The signature is that nothing in his operation ever looks rushed.
Any punt and place-kick operation that values snap consistency and wants its snapper to double as a coverage body rather than a pure delivery specialist.
Year 1: uncontested starting long snapper on all three operations plus a coverage role. Ceiling: a decade-long, Pro Bowl-caliber specialist who is never a coaching-staff conversation.
A staff that carries a hybrid snapper — a backup tight end or linebacker who also snaps — to save the roster spot, which erases the value of a dedicated specialist.
He was the only long snapper drafted in 2025; teams that treat the position as a camp tryout were never going to spend a pick here.
Julian Ashby College Highlights, Vanderbilt LS
SEC snapping operation and punt coverage reps from his 2024 season at Vanderbilt.
2025 NFL Draft Highlights: Julian Ashby, LS, Vanderbilt
Pre-draft cutup showing snap velocity, spiral and release into coverage.
Julian Ashby SSS Session 2 - New England Patriots
Isolated snapping session showing technique, timing and ball placement.
Ashby was the rare specialist whose evaluation was genuinely settled before the process started. He snapped four seasons at Furman, earned first-team FCS All-America honors in 2023, then transferred to Vanderbilt for 2024 and handled a full SEC schedule without a hiccup — a level check that mattered more than any single rep.
The production is measured differently at this position. He appeared in 57 career games, was a Patrick Mannelly Award semifinalist as the nation's best snapper, and never had a botched operation attached to his name in an SEC season. His pro day backed up the athleticism teams want in coverage: 4.94 in the forty, a 9-foot-7 broad jump and 15 bench reps at 231 pounds. The flags were positional, not personal — snappers rarely get drafted, and the FCS bulk of his tape meant most of the SEC evidence was one season deep.
Boards had him as the top snapper available and a priority free agent at worst. New England traded up the back of the seventh, sending pick 228 to Kansas City for 251 and 257, and spent the first of them on the only long snapper taken in the draft.
- 01
Operation time
Snap-to-punt timing was among the fastest and most repeatable in the class, and the velocity never dips on the long field-goal operations.
- 02
Accuracy
Puts a tight spiral on the target hip on both punt and hold operations, giving holders a clean catch without adjustment.
- 03
Coverage athlete
At 231 pounds he releases and runs like a gunner, breaking down in space and finishing tackles instead of just escorting the returner.
- 04
Level check
Handled a full SEC schedule at Vanderbilt in 2024 after four years as an FCS starter, answering the only real question on his tape.
- 05
Durability and makeup
Five straight seasons as a starting snapper, 57 career games, a physics degree and a 3.97 GPA behind the reliability.
- 01
Positional value
Even a flawless snapper is a specialist, and the range where he was drafted is where teams find contributors at other spots.
- 02
Sample split
Four of his five seasons came at the FCS level, so the SEC evidence teams graded is essentially one year deep.
- 03
Protection strength
Gives ground against a heavy interior rusher on the punt unit and wins with technique rather than mass.
- 04
No secondary role
He offers nothing outside the snapping and coverage job, so a roster spot has to be justified by the operation alone.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.94sp50
- Vertical
- 30inp50
- Broad jump
- 115inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 15repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Punts | Yds | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Furman | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | Furman | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Furman | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | Furman | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | Vanderbilt | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | — | 57 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Long snapper: games played is the meaningful counting stat. Tackle totals are only verified for 2021 (2) and 2024 (2); FCS coverage tackles for 2020, 2022 and 2023 are not documented and are left null rather than zero-filled. Season games sum to the 57-game career total.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- First-team FCS All-American (2023)
- Patrick Mannelly Award semifinalist (2024)
- Southern Conference champion (2023)
Entrenched young starting snapper who wins the job outright and holds it without ever being a talking point.
Multi-time Pro Bowl snapper whose value was flawless operation plus real coverage work over a long career.
Drafted snapper whose career stalled when injury and roster math cost him the job he was picked to hold.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
New England did not draft him to compete. He signed on May 9, won the job outright in camp and played all 17 games as a rookie, handling every punt, field goal and extra point operation while logging 140 special-teams snaps and three tackles in coverage. There was no rotation, no veteran safety net and no visible mistake — and the job held through four postseason games as the Patriots ran all the way to Super Bowl LX. He enters 2026 as an entrenched starter with no competition brought in behind him.
In hindsight, the pick reads exactly as intended. Spending a seventh-rounder on a snapper is always mocked in the moment, and this one was; the counterargument is that New England got a decade-length answer at a position where a single bad rep costs a game, and paid a 251st pick for it. The ceiling here is Pro Bowl-tier longevity rather than impact, and the risk was always that the job could have been filled for free in May. For what this selection actually cost, it is already one of the cleanest returns anywhere in the round.
Data note: Long snapper: games played is the meaningful counting stat. Tackle totals are only verified for 2021 (2) and 2024 (2); FCS coverage tackles for 2020, 2022 and 2023 are not documented and are left null rather than zero-filled. Season games sum to the 57-game career total.