YPSILANTI, Mich. — Cole Snyder is taking the next step in his football journey.

The 2019 Southwestern Central School graduate has been invited to Detroit Lions rookie camp May 9-11 in Allen Park, Michigan.

“Every kid’s dream growing up playing football is to be able to have an opportunity to make an NFL roster,” Snyder said Monday evening. ” … Now that it’s in front of me and I can reach out and touch it, I’m going to give it my best; that’s all I can control. I can’t make myself make the team, but I can do my best, control what I can control and leave it all out there.”

The Lions currently have three quarterbacks on their roster in Jared Goff, Kyle Allen and Hendon Hooker, a 2023 draft pick out of the University of Tennessee. Jake Fromm, who spent last season on the Lions practice squad, was cut Wednesday.

Since wrapping up his lone season and collegiate career at Eastern Michigan University in late November, Snyder has been racking up miles across half of the country.

From Jan. 10-12, he took part in the College Gridiron Showcase in Dallas, Texas, and followed that up at the Trillion Tropical Bowl on Jan. 17-19 in Orlando, Florida.

After the all-star showcases, Snyder went to New Jersey to work at the TEST Football Academy with his private quarterback coach Tony Racioppi.

“He helped me a ton throughout this process,” Snyder said of Racioppi, who has worked with Kenny Pickett and Tim Boyle, among other NFL quarterbacks. “The EMU strength coach and other guys who have been preparing for opportunities have been great. I couldn’t do it without those guys. I appreciate them a ton.”

Two weeks before Eastern Michigan’s pro day, Snyder returned to Ypsilanti and continued working out at the Eagles facilities.

“The Lions were at our pro day and they invited me to the local day — basically a tryout for kids who graduate nearby or went to high school nearby. They got another look at me, we threw individual drills, worked on a whiteboard and watched some film,” Snyder said. “That went really well. That’s probably a big reason why they ended up giving me another phone call.”

The Indianapolis Colts and Minnesota Vikings were also interested in Snyder leading up to the draft, according to his agent, John Perez, who is based out of New Jersey. Snyder said he also has an opportunity in the Canadian Football League.

“Obviously my dream wasn’t to play in the CFL, it was to play in the NFL, but any opportunity that presents itself, I was going to take a swing and go full speed ahead,” he said. ” … I’m going to exhaust all of my NFL opportunities before the CFL. If that is where God takes me, to the CFL, I’ll be super fortunate to be playing professional football there as well.”

In his lone season with Eastern Michigan, Snyder delivered a standout performance, starting all 12 games in 2024 — making him only the fifth EMU quarterback to do so since 2004.

Snyder amassed 3,014 total yards of offense, ranking sixth on the program’s single-season record list and becoming the first Eagle to achieve the feat since 2021. His 240 completions (seventh all-time) on 402 attempts (ninth all-time) yielded 2,685 passing yards and 15 touchdowns, supplemented by 329 rushing yards and four additional scores. Snyder threw for a career-high 354 yards and two touchdowns at Akron on Oct. 26.

The year in Ypsilanti came on the heels of two seasons as the starting quarterback at Snyder’s “hometown” University at Buffalo. During that time, the Bulls went 10-15, including 6-14 in the Mid-American Conference. Snyder completed 474 of 833 passes for 5,139 yards and 31 touchdowns during his time in Amherst.

“I’m blessed to be able to have had the career that I’ve had and I’m super grateful for the opportunities that God gave me,” Snyder said. “To throw for that many yards and play in that many games is really incredible.”

His career started in the Big Ten Conference at Rutgers University where he saw limited playing time during three seasons.

“Stats are cool, but more importantly it’s the relationships that I’ve made with all the people — hundreds of teammates and coaches,” Snyder said. “Just to have all those relationships, I can only hope those people remember me for being a good teammate and a great person, somebody they can count on.”

Snyder was The Post-Journal Player of the Year in 2018 at Southwestern. During his career as a Trojan, he completed 376 passes for 5,302 yards and 75 touchdowns.

“Hopefully I have a long professional career and can play football as long as I can,” said Snyder, who graduated from UB with a degree in economics and earned a graduate certificate in finance from EMU. “I might get that opportunity so it’s pretty incredible.”