Long snapper Joe Cardona, also known as Joseph Cardona, wears jersey number 49 for the New England Patriots of the National Football League.
Cardona is a lieutenant in the American Naval Reserve and a USNA alumnus. He attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Newport, Rhode Island, for a year after graduating from high school before enrolling at the Naval Academy, where he majored in economics.
Cardona was selected 166th overall in the fifth round of the 2015 NFL Draft. He represented the Navy in college football.
He is the second-highest drafted long snapper in NFL history, behind Ryan Pontbriand, and only the fourth player ever to be categorized as a long snapper to be selected in the first round.
He won Super Bowl LI and Super Bowl LIII with the Patriots. Cardona became the fourth pure long snapper to be selected in NFL history on May 2, 2015, when the New England Patriots took him in the fifth round (166th overall) of the 2015 NFL Draft (and the second drafted by the Patriots, after Jake Ingram).
While the Patriot’s special teams groups as a whole struggled in 2021 the group allowed a league-high four blocked kicks Cardona was as reliable as any player on the roster.
In addition to assisting Nick Folk, the placekicker, in making 78 of 86 possible field goals and extra point attempts (90.7%), he also showed good synergy with Jake Bailey, whether the latter was deployed as a punter or holder.
Folk and Bailey didn’t quite reach the same statistical levels they had in 2020, but Cardona wasn’t to blame for that.