The long-snapping debate around the Green Bay Packers never really quieted down in the preseason. Matt Orzech had challengers, Cal Adomitis got attention, and a lot of the noise got tied to rookie kicker Trey Smack running through the preseason without missing while Adomitis was the holder. That led to plenty of chatter about whether Orzech was the problem.
So the question here is simple: how did Orzech actually look on field goals and extra points in Week 1?
The answer, at least on the snap-and-hold side, was pretty clean.
To track it, the snaps were broken into zones based on where the ball ended up relative to the holder and the spot where the kick was supposed to be placed. The best outcome is a snap that comes up off the ground right where it should be held.
The next best is a snap that arrives on the body. A ball on the ground at the snap point or at the body is worse, but still workable.
The real danger comes when the snap forces the holder to move or get out of position, especially when the ball is behind him or above his head.
On rotation, Orzech’s snaps were solid across the board. Every snap in the Week 1 sample had good rotation, which matters because the holder needs to catch it cleanly and get the laces where they need to be.
Looking at all six field goal and extra point attempts, including the one that was wiped out by defensive offsides, Orzech landed every snap in the green zone. Four of the six, or 66.7%, were in the ideal quadrant.
The missed extra point still came on a snap that hit the ideal spot: up, above the place where the ball was going to be held.
As for the hold, the setup also looked right. In no-wind conditions, most kickers prefer the ball held with a slight forward lean, away from the kicker, and that’s what this looked like.
The miss itself is a different conversation, and not one this film breakdown tries to solve. But on the snap-to-hold side, the operation looked good.
Whether this becomes a weekly thing is still up in the air. The idea is to keep tracking it if there’s value there, but how much of it gets written may come down to whether people actually want it. For now, the Week 1 answer on Orzech was straightforward: the snaps were there.
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