The New York Giants drafted John Michael Schmitz to be the future of the center position. 

Often deemed the third most important position on the offensive line, centers have the rare responsibility of touching the ball on every snap. 

But there's more than meets the eye when analyzing the way that ball gets to the quarterback. Schmitz has a special way of doing it, meaning Daniel Jones has some catching up to do. 

Schmitz performs what's termed a "dead snap" in the football coaching world. Basically, instead of snapping the ball with the laces and issuing a tight spiral en route to the QB, the ball just flies back as the center grabs any portion of the ball. 

That means every ball can have a different flight path, leading to potential turnovers if a knuckler comes back and the QB doesn't react in time. Now your probably thinking either:
A. "Why is this a big deal?" Or:
B. "Why not just snap the ball traditionally?"

The difference between a dead snap and traditional snap matters because of QB's typical pre-snap process. There is a sequence of events that involves setting, reading, and reacting all in around 15 seconds or less. 

The last thing a Qb is thinking about is the direction the ball is going to go off the center's hand, meaning a dead snap only further complicate the most complex position in all of pro sports. 

But once a center has learned this process, the muscle memory might as well be the equivalent of him remembering his own name. And there are obvious benefits in fast huddles and hurry-up offenses as a dead snap allows the center to go at a faster tempo.

The good news is that while Jones may be only a week into learning this technique, all signs point to him handling it swimmingly. Jordan Raanan covers the Giants for ESPN and was in person at week one of OTA's. Here's what he saw:

The “dead snap” was not a problem, said Raanan. Jones wasn’t jumping or contorting to catch snaps from his new center. In fact, the snaps were barely notable, which is generally a positive sign since it’s a part of the game often taken for granted.

And Jones has said as much himself, noting:

“It's been good, yeah, I'm good with it. He's (JMS) accurate. As long as it gets back to me,” Jones told ESPN.

So while it's only May and the snaps won't matter until September. It's good the two are getting on the same page now. Hopefully no mistimed snaps occur, but if they do, now you know why it happened. 

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