The Raiders have found their replacement for longtime long-snapper Jon Condo with the signing of Andrew DePaola, a source told the Bay Area News Group.
The team later confirmed the signing.
DePaola’s deal is for four years and $4.27 million with $875,000 guaranteed, making him the highest-paid long-snapper in the NFL.
DePaola played for the Chicago Bears last season after spending 2014-16 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He signed with Tampa Bay as an undrafted free agent in 2012 but didn’t stick until two years later. He has played all 16 regular season games in each of the last four seasons.
Condo announced on March 7 the Raiders wouldn’t bring him back in unrestricted free agency. He spent 12 years with the Raiders and was the team’s longest-tenured player after Oakland announced kicker Sebastian Janikowski wouldn’t play for the team in 2018.
According to Pro Football Focus’ Austin Gayle, Condo ranked 28th among 33 long-snappers with 42 or more snaps in 2017 in snap accuracy (91.7 percent). His errant snap late in the Raiders’ 17-16 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 6 led to a missed extra point. DePaola, on the other hand, ranked seventh in snap accuracy last season with a 97.7% clip.
The Raiders signed two young long-snappers, Cal product Bradley Northnagel and Vanderbilt product Andrew East, to reserve/future contracts earlier in the offseason. They’ll assuredly now just provide competition for DePaola in camp, if that.
ESPN first reported DePaola’s signing on Friday morning.
