Job security doesn’t go to the head of Weeks
Bill O’Brien, like all head coaches, regularly says that all jobs are available.
It’s laughable, we know. I mean, you really think somebody is going to beat out J.J. Watt for a starting job? (Side note: The day Watt isn’t better than the guy trying to replace him will be a sad day in Mosquitoville.)
But Watt, who is entering his ninth NFL season, attacks every day at work as if he has earned nothing. It is impressive. He should have another spectacular season.
The same goes for long snapper Jon Weeks.
Weeks has an elite skill that allows him to hold a job that just 32 others have.
Everyone who knows of him, knows the 10-year veteran, the longest-tenured Texan, is a lock to make the team. The Texans haven’t even bothered to bring in any competition for his position, because the newcomer can’t win.
Weeks is that good.
One reason he is so good is he goes to practice every day to
earn the job we know he already has.
“I approach every day like I’m just another guy trying to make the team,” Weeks said. “I think that’s how I have to do it. And I think that’s why I’ve been successful, as I’ve never taken any day for granted.
“Unfortunately for me, I started late, so I have had the game taken away from me. So I approach every day like I’m fighting for my job, because I am just like every other guy.”
Weeks left Baylor after the 2007 season, but was he unemployed in 2008 and ’09. Well, football unemployed that is.
By day, as he told the Chronicle’s Brian T. Smith in 2016, he was in school studying to become an emergency medical technician. By night, he worked a 12-hour graveyard shift as a hospital CAT scan assistant.
“I didn’t play for two years, so I know what it’s like not to be on the field, not to be with the guys on the team,” said Weeks, who is in the final year of a contract that pays him just under $1 million this season. “So it’s something I cherish, something I’m very proud of. I don’t take it lightly.”
When he was fresh out of Baylor, Weeks was invited to the Detroit Lions rookie minicamp, but he was told there was almost no chance he could unseat
veteran Don Muhlbach.
Muhlbach, who played at Texas A&M, is now 16 years in and still snapping for the Lions. He and Weeks spent some time together Wednesday and Thursday during the teams’ joint practices across the street from NRG Stadium.
“We’re a tight little fraternity,” Weeks said. “We understand the pressures and what it takes to be good at this job.
“We all have a lot of respect for each other. So when these do come together, it’s so beneficial to see how guys work. You know, it’s very beneficial for me to see how a 16-year pro like Don works, what he’s practicing and the different kind of things he does that I can take incorporate into my routine. I’ve really enjoyed practice with him the last two days.”
Weeks was a nervous pup in his first few NFL auditions.
One day in his first camp with the Texans on 2010, Weeks had a couple bad snaps in a kicking drill that was a competition between Kris Brown and Neil Rackers.
Brown was 5-for-5 and Rackers 3-for-5, thanks in part to the poor snaps.
With the Texans headed to Arizona for a preseason game, coach Gary Kubiak was not convinced Weeks was a keeper.
Old school Kubiak preferred his deep snapper to play another position. Weeks, at a not-sorock-hard 5-10, 242 pounds, wasn’t exactly built to play elsewhere.
“Weeks had a couple of (bad snaps),” Kubiak said. “Obviously, this kid is going into his first NFL action. We’re going to keep a snapper? He’ll have to be automatic if we’re going to do that. If not, then we may be back leaning on (tight end) Joel (Dreessen).”
Theirs is a unique challenge: Playing a sport in relative obscurity unless you make a mistake.
On occasion, kickers and punters make spectacular plays, game-winning kicks, they can even catch, throw or run for touchdowns.
Deep snappers do get to touch the football — Weeks has averaged 155 snaps a season the last five years — it is just that 99.9 percent of the time nobody notices.
“That’s the job,” Weeks said. A job he has but is still working to earn.