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Falcons worked out 3 long snappers on Thursday

This is probably about ensuring the Falcons have someone to call if Liam McCullough falters.

NFL: AUG 22 Preseason - Falcons at Jets Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Atlanta let All-Pro long snapper Josh Harris walk this offseason after a decade with the team, and we figured to have a lively competition for the role when they signed both Beau Brinkley and Liam McCullough. Unfortunately, Brinkley was hurt, but McCullough clearly did well enough this summer that the team didn’t feel the need to add any competition for him.

That doesn’t mean they won’t want to have some insurance, though, as McCullough has yet to appear in a regular season game. Per Aaron Wilson at Pro Football Network, the team is hosting long snapper Mitch Fraboni today.

Wilson also posted today’s workouts, and it appears Fraboni was just one of three long snappers the team worked out, the other two being Kameron Canaday and John Wirtel.

Fraboni, 25, was Arizona State’s long snapper from 2014-2017 and has stints with the Steelers, in the Spring League, and most recently with the Pittsburgh Maulers of the USFL. Like McCullough, he’s still looking to stick with a team for a regular season game, but also like McCullough, he’s young and was very good at long snapping in college.

Wirtel, 27, played in college for Kansas and has a stint with the Bears under his belt in the pros. Canaday, 29, is the most experienced candidate for the gig, having spent multiple seasons as Pittsburg’s long snapper from 2017-2021, and might make the most sense if the Falcons are looking for proven insurance for McCullough.

Chances are this isn’t about supplanting McCullough, but providing the team with someone to call in case their new long snapper falters at all this season. It’s possible that the team could elect to keep one of these three players on the practice squad as one of their 16 players as more immediate insurance, but it’s not often you see a team elect to carry two long snappers like that, and I’m sort of dubious it will happen here.

We’ll see if any of these players sign, but for now they’re names to file away in what we hope is the unlikely case that McCullough doesn’t hack it this season as Atlanta’s long snapper.