Pro Bowl center Alex Mack rattled off all he does

ORLANDO Justin Layne Jersey , Fla. (AP) — the snap: Checks for blitzes, keeps an eye on the play clock, makes blocking adjustments and communicates all the changes to everyone else.All that happens in seconds — with 300-pound defenders a few inches away and ready to pounce.“It’s unlike anything else in football,” the Atlanta Falcons standout said.Some might argue the center is the most indispensable player on the roster — the player who mans the only position guaranteed to touch the ball on every play. He calls the shots for the offensive line and begins each play.But an Associated Press analysis revealed that despite their unique skill set, it was centers — not running backs, linebackers or defensive backs — who were becoming more endangered more quickly than players at any other position . In 2009, the average center had six years in the league. This season, the average center had four years of experience.“Really? That’s shocking,” Mack said. “I guess, technically, it’s the last spot for the O-line. If you’re a tackle who can’t play in space, they move you to guard. If you’re a guard that’s having trouble, they move you to center. Oftentimes center is the position that can get the most help. A lot of the blocks are double-teams, so you’re not put on an island nearly as much, so it’s always a position that you can try to improve.”Most teams have in recent years, too.Thirty-eight centers have been drafted over the last five years, and none of them has made a Pro Bowl. Sixteen of those have been taken in the first three rounds of the NFL draft.It helps explain why the experience of the average center has fallen. While every position outside of quarterback, kicker and punter has seen a decline, no position sees this sharp a drop-off in the AP survey.“It’s one of those tough, nasty http://www.steelersfootballauthentics.com/benny-snell-jr.-jersey-authentic , gritty positions that you have to just keep fighting at, and kids nowadays just aren’t quite the same,” said retired NFL center Brad Meester, a 14-year starter for the Jacksonville Jaguars. “Even at the high school level, those kids are getting harder and harder to find anymore.“They’re just not the same as they were years ago. I don’t know if that’s been part of the reason play has gone down and we’re seeing this dip in longevity, but it could be.”Since centers are typically the smallest offensive linemen in college, Mack and Meester believe some undersized guys have trouble making the NFL jump — especially with defensive linemen getting bigger, faster and stronger each year.“In college, if you have a guy who’s big enough to play in the NFL, he’s probably playing tackle or guard,” Meester said. “He might get moved to center at the next level, and then you end up with centers that are a little raw going into the NFL.”That’s exactly what happened to Chicago Bears Pro Bowl center Cody Whitehair, who started his college career as a guard and moved to left tackle as a senior at Kansas State. The Bears drafted him in the second round in 2016 and then moved him to center a week before his rookie year.“It’s hard to transition into the NFL,” Whitehair said. “It definitely takes a special breed to come in out of college and be ready to start on the offensive line, especially at center.”Still, Whitehair was surprised to learn that the longevity of centers isn’t what is used to be. He said it could be that centers are asked to do so much more in the NFL than in college, where more prevalent spread systems often take their cues from the sideline inside of adjusting on the fly.But Whitehair pointed to Mack (10th season), New Orleans’ Max Unger (10th), Philadelphia’s Jason Kelce (8th) and the Pouncey twins (8th and 7th, respectively) as long-term starters he thought would be enough to make a difference in the changing landscape.“We just got to get the younger generation to follow in those footsteps Zach Gentry Jersey ,” Whitehair said.For every success story such as Whitehair, it seems there’s a recently drafted center who’s already out of the league — guys like David Molk, Philip Blake, Peter Konz, Khaled Holmes, Bryan Stork and Hroniss Grasu to name a few.“A center really is your quarterback of the offensive line, the guy who right along with the quarterback is reading defenses, reading stunts, blitzes, secondaries,” Meester said. “If you get a guy in there that can do that, you keep him.” ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs agreed to terms with cornerback Morris Claiborne on a one-year deal Thursday to fortify a thin and unproven backfield, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.The person, who said the deal could be worth about $3 million with incentives, spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the team had not announced it. Claiborne still must pass a physical to make it official.The Chiefs have been searching for help at cornerback all offseason, and that need became even more apparent when backup Keith Reaser suffered a season-ending Achilles injury. Claiborne would give Kansas City some depth behind the starting trio of Bashaud Breeland, Charvarius Ward and Kendall Fuller.Well, when he becomes eligible to play.The former sixth-overall pick has been suspended the first four games of the season for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy. That means the earliest he could play is Week 5 against the Colts, giving him plenty of time to learn defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s system.Claiborne L.J. Collier Jersey , who was teammates at LSU with new Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu, spent his first five seasons with Dallas before spending the last two with the Jets. He has started 73 of the 77 games in which he has appeared, making 251 tackles and seven interceptions while scoring a pair of touchdowns.One of his biggest problems has been staying healthy.Claiborne has missed time with injuries ranging from hamstring and groin problems to a torn patellar tendon that caused him to miss 12 games in 2014. He also has missed a game each of the past two seasons in New York, first with a foot injury and last season with a shoulder problem.The Chiefs have been working on a deal with Claiborne for a while, which is one of the reasons they felt comfortable switching second-year pro Tremon Smith from cornerback to running back last week.“They’re competing,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said of his collection of cornerbacks, “but I feel comfortable doing this move right now with Tremon.”Breeland, who signed as a free agent in the offseason, and Fuller are listed as the first-team cornerbacks on the initial depth chart released for Saturday night’s preseason opener against Cincinnati. But the Chiefs intend to use Fuller primarily in the slot, which means Ward could start on the opposite side of Breeland when the Chiefs are in their base 4-3 defense.The Chiefs knew what they were getting in Breeland. Ward has been a pleasant surprise.“When I did watch the tape, and I had mentioned it to (general manager) Brett (Veach) that I think this particular player — I didn’t know him at the time — had some potential to be a good press corner,” Spagnuolo said. “I like the guys with the long arms. Now, I have to get used to the inner makeup of a corner. That’s really important in this league. I’d like to see him always challenge every play.”Perhaps an internal challenge from a new signing in Claiborne will help to spur Ward along.That goes for the rest of the Chiefs’ reconstructed defensive backfield, too.NOTES: The Chiefs signed TE Hunter Dimick late Wednesday. He was an undrafted free agent out of Utah who spent time with Jacksonville last season. … WR Sammy Watkins hurt his finger during Thursday’s practice, but Reid said it should be OK. … DT Xavier Willilams (lower back soreness), TE David Wells (calf bruise), DE Alex Okafor (sore hip) and WR Gehrig Dieter (back spasms) did not practice. … RB Damien Williams (hamstring) practice for the second day after missing most of the first two weeks of camp. “We’re just easing him back in,” Reid said. “We don’t want him to take any steps back with his hamstring, but he looks good.”