After 10 Patriots seasons, Joe Cardona joined Jonathan Jones, Deatrich Wise and David Andrews as Super Bowl-era bastions to move on this offseason. New England released the veteran long snapper following the draft.
As the Pats became the only team to draft a pure long snapper this year (in Vanderbilt’s Julian Ashby), Cardona will see another opportunity come soon. The Dolphins are signing him Friday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweets. A intra-division transfer is now in play for Cardona, who joins a Miami team that entered Friday without a long snapper.
This move comes a day after the Dolphins released deep snapper Blake Ferguson, who did not finish the season with the team. Ferguson had stepped away due to an undisclosed medical issue, landing on the reserve/NFI list last season. Veteran Jake McQuaide finished the season as Miami’s long snapper. McQuaide, 37, is unsigned.
Patriots-to-Dolphins paths were more common during the Brian Flores era in Miami, but Cardona will bring extensive experience nonetheless. The Pats drafted him in the 2015 fifth round, as Bill Belichick regularly placed a premium on special teams play. He suited up for all but four Patriots games from 2015-24, playing in three Super Bowls and collecting two rings in that span.
Although Cardona has never made a Pro Bowl, the Navy alum is certainly a well-regarded snapper. He probably will not become the first deep snapper to break the $2MM-AAV barrier, as we may still be years away from that benchmark being cleared, but he now has a clear path to continuing his career with a Pats rival. Cardona, Jones and Wise have found new homes; the latter two landed in Washington. Following another season featuring a lengthy absence, Andrews remains without a team.