At Colorado State, Scott Albritton had a streak of 232 snaps without a misfire until a knee injury last fall interrupted his collegiate career. Now Albritton will get the opportunity to rekindle that streak, only this time on the professional level.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made an early-season tweak to their 53-man roster on Wednesday, signing Albritton to take over their long-snapping duties. The undrafted rookie takes the place of another undrafted rookie, UCLA's Christian Yount, who had handled the team's snaps for all punts and placekicks throughout the preseason and in the regular-season opener.
Tampa Bay also made a move involving a pair of rookies on the practice squad, signing linebacker Ross Homan and releasing linebacker Derrell Smith.
The Buccaneers' incumbent long-snapper, Andrew Economos, is on the reserve/physically unable to perform list (PUP) due to an Achilles heel injury suffered during the offseason. Economos, who will be eligible to return from that list to the active roster after the sixth week of the season, had taken care of all the Bucs' long-snapping duties from 2007-10, playing in 64 consecutive games.
The 6-3, 234-pound Albritton started his college career at Santa Barbara Community College but transferred to Colorado State after redshirting in 2007. He immediately took over the long-snapping job for the Rams and played in all 13 games in 2008, adding three kick-coverage tackles. Albritton once again took care of all snapping duties for CSU in 2009, contributing three more special teams stops and also occasionally serving as the kicker on onside kickoffs. His 2010 senior season was cut short after five games by a knee injury but he was named to the academic all-conference team for the second year in a row.
Albritton first entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Houston Texans on August 15. He was waived on the final roster cutdown before the regular-season.
Homan (6-1, 240) was the 200th pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, going to the Minnesota Vikings in the sixth round. He played in three preseason games for the Vikings, contributing four tackles, but was waived on the final cutdown on September 3. He is the cousin of former Ohio State quarterback Bobby Hoying, who played six years in the NFL (1996-2001) with the Philadelphia Eagles and Oakland Raiders.
Homan started for three seasons with the Buckeyes and the led the team in solo tackles in his final two campaigns. He was particularly strong in coverage at Ohio State, as evidenced by his seven career interceptions.
Smith signed with the Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent out of Syracuse. He played in all four preseason games and had six tackles but was waived during the final roster cutdown before being re-signed to the practice squad.
