Over the first 12 weeks of this season, return specialists have cried foul over the seemingly exorbitant number of fair catches being forced by the legion of directional and hang-time punters now in such preponderance in the league.
"Just about everyone is concentrating on net [yardage] and maybe sacrificing a little bit of [gross] distance for hang time," noted Indianapolis Colts punt return ace Troy Walters. "You are seeing so many fair catches now, it's unbelievable, really. There are punters out there, and special-teams coaches, basically trying to eliminate the return game."
And, at first blush, succeeding at it.
Walters should know, since he has more fair catches (19) than returns (14) in 11 games, and since his 7.1-yard average is nearly two yards lower than the standard he set during his first four NFL seasons. In fact, there are 10 punt-return specialists who already have double-digit fair catches. Also notable is that two-thirds of the league's punters have forced 10 or more fair catches. One result of all the hand-waving histrionics: The ball isn't getting into the end zone, with just five punts returned for touchdowns in the first 176 games of the '05 season, a rate that projects to having the fewest touchdowns on punt runbacks since 1989, when there were five.
Kickoff returns for touchdowns are down as well, with just nine so far, which projects to only 13 for the season. At the current pace, the combined kickoff and punt returns for scores would represent the fewest since 1995. But it is the lack of scores off punt returns that is the more alarming of the two.
Rest of the article. . .
It's really interesting to watch the ways in which the NFL develops and how people specialize in certain tasks. The whole notion of 'special teams players' is a relatively new concept in the history of football; so is having 2 kickers (one for accuracy, one for distance).
I'm wondering if we won't see a rise in "return specialists" in the next few years: guys like Dante Hall who aren't the greatest receivers in the world but make their fame through returns.
Perhaps even someone like Antonio Brown who could take up the 4th or even 5th receiver slot but would basically be a return guy.
) But he is an idiot.
