New York Giants special teams are so back. Dominic Zvada isn’t the only undrafted rookie third-phaser turning an overlooked position into one of Big Blue’s biggest strengths four weeks into the 2026 season.
Might I introduce you to long snapper Ben Mann? You probably haven’t heard his name much this year, which is generally a good thing when we’re talking about the guy responsible for getting the football from between his legs into punter Jordan Stout’s hands (either on punts or kicking attempts). But thanks to an incredibly specific stat, we’re giving the 24-year-old former Boston College Eagle his flowers.
Through four games, Mann is the only long snapper in the NFL with at least four starts to record a perfect spiral on 100% of his snaps. I’m not going to pretend that was sitting atop my list of stats to monitor entering 2026, but I call it how I see it: perfection is perfection.
Ben Mann is (very) quietly looking like another Giants UDFA steal
Welcome to the world of advanced analytics, where perfect-spiral rate is a thing because we can (and apparently will) measure anything and everything. Mann currently owns the only perfect score (min. four starts) in the league:
Long snapper | Spiral rate |
|---|---|
Ben Mann (Giants) | 100% |
Reid Ferguson (Bills) | 95.7% |
Hogan Hatten (Lions) | 95.0% |
Ross Matiscik (Jaguars) | 92.3% |
Andrew DePaola (Vikings) | 92.3% |
Head coach John Harbaugh has spent basically his entire coaching career caring almost too much about special teams, more than the average person probably should, and apparently that includes finding elite long snappers.
The G-Men signed Mann after going undrafted in the 2026 Draft. Instead of making him survive a dramatic training-camp battle like Zvada had to, New York released veteran LS Zach Triner and handed the rookie every long-snapping rep the whole offseason.
Four weeks in, it’s looking like the Giants made a pretty smart snap judgment -- more puns!
Mann’s college résumé suggested this was to be expected. Across 40 career games, the 6-foot-5, 232-pounder didn’t record a single snapping infraction.
There’s even a more fun Giants connection buried in the spiral rate story here. Mann’s grandfather, Chuck Mercein, was drafted by New York in the third round back in 1965 before eventually winning a Super Bowl with Vince Lombardi’s Packers.
Sixty-one years later, his grandson is making his own name with Big Blue one perfect spiral at a time.
Between Mann not spiraling out of control, Stout punting footballs to the moon, and Zvada flirting with Giants history, Harbaugh’s special teams makeover is looking pretty electric after four weeks. Two-thirds of that trio didn’t even hear their names called during draft night.
Turns out all it took to flip Big Blue’s special teams nightmare was a head coach who dreamed about this stuff for a living.
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