Tag: Anthony Kukwa

Texans release long snapper Anthony Kukwa

The Houston Texans have released long snapper Anthony Kukwa, rendering them without a long snapper on the roster.

The Houston Texans do not have a long snapper on the roster.

According to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle, the Texans cut their only long snapper on the roster in Anthony Kukwa.

The Texans originally had a long snapper on the roster in Pro Bowler Jon Weeks. However, the Texans chose to let Weeks’ contract expire and allow the 35-year-old to hit free agency.

Weeks had been the team’s long snapper since 2010 and played 176 games for the Texans, the most in the history of the franchise.

The Texans won’t enter the 2021 season with a long snapper. What is more likely to happen is the Texans evaluate long snappers in training camp. The risk is they will be going with an unknown quantity as opposed to a known quantity, which is what even Kukwa was. The former 2017 undrafted free agent from Lake Erie tried out with the Texans in the 2019 offseason. However, he never caught on with the Texans until 2020, when he spent time claimed, waived, and signed to the practice squad.

Texans shuffle linebackers, strengthen special teams

The Houston Texans have released ILB Jan Johnson and signed LB Daren Bates and brought back LB Anthony Kukwa, both of whom have special teams utility.

The Houston Texans have retooled the depth of their linebacking corps to help out with their special teams unit.

Houston released inside linebacker Jan Johnson and will bring back linebacker Anthony Kukwa, who is also a long snapper. The Texans have also brought in linebacker Daren Bates. Both of the veterans have a history of working with Texans special teams coordinator Tracy Smith.

“So we released Jan Johnson and we added Daren Bates,” coach Bill O’Brien told the Houston Chronicle’s John McClain. “He’s been a very productive special teams linebacker. He played at Tennessee and Oakland and Tracy Smith had a familiarity with him. And then we also added a long snapper, linebacker named Anthony Kukwa.”

Bates was with the Oakland Raiders in 2016 when Smith was an assistant special teams coach under special teams coordinator Brad Seely. Kukwa was part of the Raiders’ offseason program after leaving Lake Erie College in 2017 and becoming an undrafted free agent the same year.

The move demonstrates the Texans seek to comprise their roster of veterans with experience rather than invest heavily in undrafted free agents such as Johnson, which is one of the twists the 2020 season is taking due to the effects from the COVID-19 pandemic and the lost offseason.

[vertical-gallery id=53034]

Texans release 5 as training camp gets underway

The Houston Texans have released five players as training camp gets underway across the NFL.

The Houston Texans have released five players from their roster as training camp escalates across the league.

The Texans released QB Nick Tiano, C Elex Woodworth, S Shalom Luani, DE Ira Savage-Lewis, and LS Anthony Kukwa.

Tiano and Woodworth were undrafted free agents from Chattanooga and North Texas respectively. In a normal training camp that would have also included preseason games and possibly joint practices with other teams, Tiano would have been a camp arm that would have rounded out an exhibition game roster. Woodworth also would have had increased reps and opportunities to produce quality game tape for pro scouts to reference. The two undrafted rookies also could have battled their way onto the Texans’ practice squad at the start of the regular season.

Luani was a former Oakland Raiders 2017 seventh-round safety who spent 2018 with the Seattle Seahawks and 2019 with the Los Angeles Chargers. Luani had a connection with special teams coordinator Tracy Smith, who was the assistant special teams coach under Brad Seely with the Raiders in 2017. Kukwa similarly had a connection with Smith through the ’17 Raiders.

Savage-Lewis was an undrafted free agent from Baylor in 2019. The Texans placed the former Houston Lamar High School product on injured reserve after the first week of preseason last year.

The transactions place the Texans at 80 on their roster.

[vertical-gallery id=52186]