John Denney Enters 11th Miami Dolphins Season

There isn’t much that Nick Saban left the Miami Dolphins. Sure there is a practice bubble that to this day is met with contention. There is also long snapper John Denney. 2015 will mark Denney’s 11th season in the NFL and sets him up as the longest current member of the Dolphins roster.

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Signed by Saban’s Dolphins in 2005 as an un-drafted free agent, Denney has quietly gone about his business as the teams long snapper and has made a decade plus one career out of the speciality.

In 2005 Denney was coming out of Brigham Young University as a defensive end. He entered the teams training camp that season and found a niche snapping the ball on special teams. He would beat out incumbent Dolphin long snapper Ed Perry. Perry held the job for three seasons. In that 2005 season, Denney was the only rookie to appear in and play in all 16 games of the season, all from the LS spot.

In 2010 Denney was named to the Pro-Bowl as a coaches selection and became only the 2nd Miami Dolphins non-punter/kicker special team player to be given the honor. Larry Izzo had made the pro-bowl squad as a special teams player in 2000.

Denney has seen his share of coaching changes as well. In his 10 previous seasons he has played for Saban, Cam Cameron, Tony Sparano, Todd Bowles (interim), and Joe Philbin. He has managed to continue playing at a high level and shows little signs of slowing down even at the age of 36. He has 36 total tackles in his career, 30 of them solo. He also has three fumble recoveries and has appeared in every game since his rookie season.

Denney isn’t going to gain Hall of Fame consideration and long snappers probably shouldn’t but it’s no out of the realm of possibility to see him continue his trade into his early 40’s should he desire. Following Denney, the next oldest player on the team is Cameron Wake at 33 but it’s recently signed wide-receiver Greg Jennings that holds second place for experience with 10 years in the NFL. Brent Grimes and Brandon Fields, another player who has played his entire career in Miami, both have nine seasons.