Just how badly do our special teams suck?
Badly enough that Marwan Maalouf better polish that resume. Consider:
- Football Outsiders ranks our special teams #28 overall
- We are DEAD LAST in punt returns
- We are DEAD LAST in net punting
- We are the only team to have 2 or more punts blocked
- Our best ranking is 18th in KO returns
- 23rd in gross punting average
- 23rd in FG %
- 20th in punt return defense
I'd be a lot more concerned with Special Teams if our defense didnt rank 29th in yards allowed and 25th in points per game
yeah the special teams arent to special.
@"PSBLAKE" said: yeah the special teams arent to special.Maalouf probably ain't sleeping very soundly these days. If there was going to be some house-cleaning on Zimmer's staff, he's going to top that list.
Another question this begs though - how poor is the quality of depth on this roster?
Fans were quick to run Cordarrelle Patterson outta town for being a bust, which he kind of was, but he was a great kick returner. The ones we've had since have been bad and/or terrible.
Same for punt returners. Mike Hughes was decent if I remember correctly, but you can't have a guy made of glass taking those. The return positions don't seem to be too highly valued by Spielman and Zimmer.
I think the schemes and blocking have failed us. All teams are dealing with roster turnover and lack of preseason, etc. Take punt returns -- mostly we have singled the other teams gunners. We get no pressure on the punter and the gunner's easily beat one-one-one blocking to force a high degree of fair catches. Seems every other team doubles our gunners, who get stoned, leaving plenty of room for returns. I can't tell if KJ Osborn can return kicks or not. He doesn't look too explosive or shifty, but the blocking has been atrocious.
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