It true. You hear the word "core special teamer" constantly at the combine. It matters that you have a guy who understands ,and takes a lot of pride in his special team duties. He knows he's never going to be a starter, and when given the opportunity to be on the football field - he doesn't create a gigantic hole for an offense to attack. That was Murrell. I hope the Ryan regime takes special teams seriously, because when they didn't - like Junc said, it bit them right in the ass and cost them a 10 win season.
One of the best gunners in the league on the kicking team. Him and Smith have to be gameplanned for from a ST standpoint.
Wright was better in 08 than 09. Murrell was inactive most of the back half of the season due to POOR specials play, so don't give me the "core ST player" nonsense.
Exactly... Murrell is easily repleacable. With Wright my guess is the offered him just a 1 year contract and he wants to see if he can get something more in the open market. He wasn't worth tendering but he's still worth keeping.
I don't think Murrell was inactive due to poor play, they were using the roster spot for other players on gameday.
I keep hearing ppl saying that, so I gotta ask. Is there a limit as to how many players u can tender? Especially this year? And if so, just how much does a player earn for that year if he's worth a 4th or 5th round tender?
There were too many missed tackles on those two TDs. You don't see that too often. STers job is to contain and tackle. You don't deserve to be STer if you can't tackle. A missed tackle is just that...a missed tackle. It won't happen every time. Everyone makes mistakes but that doesn't mean they will make that mistake everytime. You won't see the missed tackles every game. There were a total of about 5 missed tackles on those two returns.
He was inactive because he started a fight with someone during a game. He's not really a ST 'ace'; he's pretty solid and I'd like to see him back but he's not worth tendering.
That was one game, he was inactive for a few games. I don't think any of these guys are worth tendering but we better bring back Wright at least and hopefully Murrell as well.
The minimum tender for Wright would have done nothing. We'd have had to tender him at a 2nd rounder, and that just wasn't going to happen. My guess is that he's being allowed to look around, but that we'll match whatever contract he's offered.
While Wright has great ST value, let's not pretend the guy is irreplaceable. Unfortunately, he's a WR and there are only so many WRs (who won't see significant action) that we can carry before they start occupying roster spots that are needed in other areas. With Braylon, Cotch, Smith, Clowney(?still here, staying?), Woodhead (as a slash), and possibly another player we draft/acquire, there's no room for Wright. Having said that, I thought he showed solid hands and decent route-running skills, but he'll never be more than a 4th/5th WR. Personally, I'd prefer he returns but if he doesn't, c'est la vie. Believe it or not, the more important issue is our D. The release of Green and Murrell all but guarantees we'll heavily target D players in the next two months. On the line, we now have Devito, Jenkins, Ellis, Pouha, Douglas(?still here, staying?), and Pitoitua. Jenkins' health is always dicey and Ellis is getting old. Pouha played serviceably well, and Devito looks good -- but none of these guys are a true force (except for Jenkins IF he plays 16 games). What happens if one of them goes down? We saw how ineffective Ellis was when he tried playing with that broken hand. At OLB, we now have Pace & Gladys and Cactus & Westerman -- in actuality, only three OLBs, as Gholston is worthless. I'd bet dollars to donuts the FO is counting on getting A. Thomas because there's no way we're going to nail every draft pick in which we'll need contributions from: OLB, DL, DB, possibly WR, and maybe even look for an OL of the future. The odds of nailing four picks when you only have a total of five aren't very favorable. Although none of these three were crucial to our success, they still provided depth and their release is creating more need. So I'm expecting one big FA signing and one big trade within the next 40 days.
