Colts sign long snapper Joe Fortunato

The Indianapolis Colts continue to make moves, as today they announced the signing of long snapper Joe Fortunato.

Fortunato played collegiately at Delaware, where he played in 46 career games, never missing a game and recording five special teams tackles. He was the long snapper for all four years on punts and for his final two years he was the long snapper on field goals too. He originally arrived at Delaware to play tight end but spent his time in college as the long snapper. He graduated in 2015, but he’s now getting a shot in the NFL.

Of course, the Colts already have a long snapper in Matt Overton, who has played in every game over the past five seasons as the long snapper and made the Pro Bowl in 2013. He has done a really good job at the position, so he’d seem firmly entrenched at the spot. But it shouldn’t be totally surprising to see the Colts sign a long snapper either: remember, last offseason they did the same thing, signing Forrest Hill to compete with Overton. Overton obviously won that job, but the fact that the Colts added competition last year should make it less surprising this year.

With Chris Ballard coming to town, it’s clear that no starting spot is untouchable (well, one is), and that emphasis on competition apparently extends even to long snappers. It will be interesting to see how much of a true competition it actually is this offseason, however, and you’d have to figure Overton has the advantage in that competition too.