On NFL cut-down day, a former Michigan special teams star got a shot of good news.
Longsnapper William Wagner, who signed with Cincinnati in May after going undrafted this year, was informed Tuesday that he made the team’s 53-man roster.
Bengals special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons delivered the news to Wagner after he finished a workout in the team’s facility, a scene that was captured on video and later published on social media.
“It’s an opportunity that you earned,” Simmons told Wagner, a six-year player at Michigan. “Now it’s up to you to show that you belong here. You did a good job in the preseason, I think you showed that you can protect.
“That was my biggest question: Can you protect and can you anchor?”
Wagner appeared in 53 games as the Wolverines’ longsnapper from 2020 to 2024, showing his range with snaps on field goals, PATs and punts.
He earned first-team all-Big Ten honors from the coaches in 2024 and was named a finalist for the Patrick Mannelly Award, honoring college football’s best longsnapper.
Wagner will be tasked with delivering the snap to one of the NFL’s best field-goal kickers, Evan McPherson, and punter Ryan Rehkow.
The Bengals open the 2025 season with three other Michigan players on their roster: defensive backs Dax Hill and DJ Turner, and defensive lineman Kris Jenkins.
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