Reynaud replaced Cribbs but Hakim (no. 15) who played today replaced Stephen Hill. But Hill was not activated last week so maybe they gave him Reynaud's spot. He did go out for one very long pass but Geno overthrew him. He has 4.2 speed.
Um, even Cribbs couldn't do well on our team. That should tell you all you need to know about the blocking on returns. Look, I'm not saying we need to spend lots of money on STs. I'm not saying it's the biggest factor in us losing. I'm just saying this is clearly the easiest fix and all season it seems like no effort is being put into it.
I've been screaming for this for some time. Some heard it fortunately. And 10 yard seems like nothing. But if it equates to average of 10 yards that you don't need to advance, it does accumulate, and it does matter. Especially when the QB play is as shaky as Jets QB play has been, every bit counts. You just don't expect Geno to engineer 80 yard drive every time. It's just not happening.
How about a special teams guy in the late rounds. We always say offense, defense, and special teams wins game. I want this team to have a legitimate threat in the kick/punt return. Catching the ball and falling down does nothing for field position; then couple that with a methodical ball control offense and eventually they just can't string together enough offensive plays to turn field position in their favor. When the team had Leon Washington, he would shift field position in their favor. Any thoughts?
Punt Return Yards Leaders - All Players KICKOFFS PUNTS RK PLAYER TEAM ATT YDS AVG LNG TD ATT YDS AVG LNG TD FC 1 Dexter McCluster, WR KC 1 3 3.0 3 0 54 631 11.7 89 2 7 2 Golden Tate, WR SEA 3 57 19.0 24 0 39 467 12.0 71 0 8 3 Tandon Doss, WR BAL 0 0 0.0 0 0 23 359 15.6 82 1 7 4 Julian Edelman, WR NE 0 0 0.0 0 0 32 356 11.1 43 0 20 5 Tavon Austin, WR STL 18 398 22.1 32 0 33 280 8.5 98 1 11 6 Brandon Tate, WR CIN 27 701 26.0 71 0 29 274 9.4 43 0 13 7 Antonio Brown, WR PIT 1 16 16.0 16 0 25 269 10.8 50 0 22 8 Keshawn Martin, WR HOU 33 864 26.2 50 0 32 264 8.3 87 1 16 9 Ted Ginn, WR CAR 21 491 23.4 38 0 20 263 13.2 41 0 20 10 Travis Benjamin, WR CLE 3 146 48.7 86 0 22 257 11.7 79 1 7 Most of these guys are game changers at returner, while a couple are average at their primary position. Now, Josh Cribbs is leading in Kickoff yardages, but I believe he is injured but definitely aging.
What you forgot to add was the Seattle coverage team, which allowed 15 yards of return all season long. [And 10 yards came from the first game.] Now tell me punt returns does not matter. Sheesh.
Special teams are way down the list on this teams problems. Take Carolina's drives yesterday and this is typical for the season. You can probably go through a bunch of other games and find a similar trend. 50 yards, 9 plays. 35 yard FG. Start: CAR 32 TOP: 4:37 85 yards, 15 plays. 22 yard FG. Start: CAR 10 TOP: 8:14 72 yards, 1 play. Touchdown. Start: CAR 28 66 yards, 11 plays. 4th down fail Start: CAR 20 TOP: 5:44 You give up these long drives and plays then you will NEVER have field position. Given that 75% kickoffs are touchbacks you aren't getting it after a score either. If the defense is allowing them to go 1/2 to 3/4 of the field every drive then what's the point??
How about this defense creating some turnovers (a.k.a. field position)?? They're tied with Houston for last in the league in takeaways with 10. 29 giveaways by the offense (22 INT, 7 fumbles) also give a team good field position and 6 of those were returned for TD's making it even worse. So not only do they not create any field position through turnovers they they give up long drives taking plenty of time off the clock while yeilding field position. How many times has this D been gashed for big chunk plays over 20 yards?? I don't have the stats for that but it has to be close to the top (bottom) of the league. Just another reason ST has little to do with this teams' struggles.
There is no doubt that the defense is giving up long drives. But they are on the field so much because of the ineffective offense. If you possess the ball for a significant amount of time then the opponents offense has a reduced number of plays. The Jets play excellent defense in spurts. What's frustrating is to watch them give an outstanding effort on a series of downs and then our offense struggles and gives the ball right back to the other team. I believe you can only keep them from scoring for so long... your defense finally breaks down. Specifically when opposing coaches get to take extended looks at your defense.
I am saying punt returns do matter. The list I provided is the top punt returners (I apologize for the poor formatting). Most of the players on that list belong to very good teams.
