When the Kansas City Chiefs drafted Oklahoma center Creed Humphrey in the second round of the 2021 NFL draft, there was a lot of chatter about his ability to succeed in the NFL because of how he snaps the football.
Left-handed snappers at the center position have been particularly rare in the NFL. Most recently you had James Stone, who snapped out of the shotgun with his left hand, but under-center with his right hand. Before that, Hall of Famer Kevin Mawae infamously snapped with his left hand after breaking his right hand as to not lose his consecutive snap streak. But really, there hadn’t been much success in the NFL with left-handed snappers.
That all changed on Sunday when Humphrey played in his NFL debut against the Cleveland Browns. Not only was Humphrey perfect snapping the football, but he was also perfect in about every other regard too. According to Pro Football Focus, in 41 pass-blocking snaps, Humphrey allowed no sacks and no pressures.
Creed Humphrey's #NFL debut vs the Browns
🔺 41 pass-block snaps
🔺 0 QB pressures allowed
🔺 0 sacks@OU_Football pic.twitter.com/TN1C2OmhmV— PFF College (@PFF_College) September 13, 2021
Humphrey also came in as the Chiefs’ third-highest graded run-blocker on the offensive line behind tackles Lucas Niang and Creed Humphrey.
If we’re being nitpicky, Humphrey was flagged for an ineligible player downfield penalty during the Chiefs’ lone two-point conversion attempt during the game. But you can hardly blame him for that on a play where things didn’t go as planned anyways.
The truth is, Chiefs fans should be extremely pleased with the performance of Humphrey. NFL talent evaluators, on the other hand, should be kicking themselves for letting the former Oklahoma Sooner fall to Kansas City at pick No. 63.
