Logan Lee fills in as emergency long snapper in Steelers’ preseason game

It was 17 years ago when an injury to the long snapper cost the Pittsburgh Steelers a win during what ended up a Super Bowl season.

The stakes weren’t high Saturday. But fair to say Logan Lee performed better as an emergency long snapper than James Harrison did in 2008.

A chest injury to Christian Kuntz during the first quarter of a 17-14 preseason defeat to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers called Lee into action. A second-year defensive lineman who missed all of his rookie season because of injury, Lee handled the snapping duties for five punts and three placekicks Saturday.

“Opportunity,” Lee said after the game. “It’s unfortunate for Christian. I’m hoping he’s all right, and it sounds like he’s going to be OK. But next man up. Coach Tomlin always talks about, ‘the more you can do.’ And I’m just blessed the Lord gave me an opportunity and praying for Christian right now, too.”

In regards to Kuntz’s status, Tomlin after the game said, “I think we got some good news there.”

A couple of hours earlier when Kuntz went to the locker room and was declared out of the game, there was no verbal communication between Tomlin and Lee.

“He didn’t have to say anything,” Lee said. “Just gave a look, and I’m like, ‘All right, cool.’ That’s what we needed, so … ”

Lee said he takes a few practice long snaps daily in practice. Because he went to a small high school in Orion, Ill., Lee not only played both ways but he was also on all of the special teams. He took up snapping then, but during college at Iowa — Big Ten teams typically have had rosters of 120 or more — there is always a true backup long snapper.

So his skills in some ways went dormant.

Until he was by default given the job as the Steelers’ emergency snapper. Oddly enough, the Steelers brought two snappers to training camp but released Tucker Addington on Aug. 7 when they needed the roster space to sign a fourth quarterback in the wake of the injury to Will Howard.

Still, who could have imagined Kuntz would go down in game during the preseason?

“I need to clean up a few of them,” Lee said of his snapping performance, “but all things considered, yeah, I’m happy with the way it went.”

Better than Harrison did Oct. 26, 2008, when Steelers long snapper Greg Warren suffered a significant knee injury during a game against the playoff-bound New York Giants. Harrison — the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year that season — gamely filled in … but on one snap back to punter Mitch Berger, the ball sailed through the back of the end zone for a safety.

No such gaffes for Lee on Saturday. Rookie Yahya Black, a fellow defensive lineman, played with Lee at Iowa. Black said he paid extra attention to Lee’s snaps.

“Ever since college, that last year, his senior year, our D-line coach (Kelvin Bell) always talked about, ‘Special teams is going to be the way you make it,’” Black said. “That’s how some guys make it in the NFL. And so Logan started to long snap, and he got his chance tonight and did pretty well.”