With the 184th pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Miami Dolphins selected Blake Ferguson, the long-snapper from the national champions of college football in the LSU Tigers. Ferguson was the first long-snapper in LSU history to be named a permanent team captain and he won the David Binn Award for the nation's best long- snapper.
For the Ferguson's, long-snapping is the family business. Blake, now of the Miami Dolphins, will have a chance to play against his brother, Reid, of the Buffalo Bills, two times every year.
Hype City, that's the nickname Blake earned visiting his brother Reid in Buffalo.
"That's a nickname I was given by Reid's folks up in Buffalo," Blake said. "I'm naturally an excited, hyped football player. There were pictures of me on the sideline at LSU where I would be yelling, screaming and having a good time and just excited. That's probably one that I'll take with me for a long time."
The 6-foot-3, 229 pound Georgia native ran through the drills in Indianapolis at the Scouting Combine, and displayed eye-popping athletic ability.
Ferguson ran a 5.07 second 40-yard dash and posted 31 and 112 inches on the vertical and broad jumps. It was his snapping, however, that made him the first player at his position off the board to the Dolphins.
"One of the top long-snappers in the country, Ferguson has a great shot at following his brother into the pros," Lance Zierlein writes. "Four-year long snapper and team captain, exceptional character for locker room or community events, able to hit perfect laces at frequent clips, rockets it to the holder or punter without much hitch, repeatable placement for field goal snaps."
Ferguson graduated from LSU's Flores MBA Program, which is designed to help students develop leadership skills in a professional setting.
"In the Flores MBA Program, you work in teams for the majority of the classes," Ferguson said. "So to be able to understand how to effectively operate in a team and to be a leader in the group of people, that's a direct parallel to going onto the football field and being a leader with a group of guys. I think that I've been able to take that and carry it over to what I do at football," Ferguson said.
Ferguson discussed his pre-draft conversations with the Miami Dolphins during his first availability with the South Florida media.
"It's an awesome organization and I spoke with a couple of folks just now," Ferguson said. "They're fired up to have me there and I'm fired up to be coming. I know [Danny] Crossman well. He coached my brother in Buffalo for a couple of years, and I think he probably trusts our bloodline. He knows the Fergusons are a good group of snappers."
