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Quick update on Punt Returner for those wondering

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kryptonite said:
Wiggle is exactly what I didn't see from JT last season. He looked like he was always a step late with his cuts, like he expected the defenders to be a step slower than they actually were.

My take is that KR is about making one cut, then pure speed which JT has. PR is about making more people miss while you find a lane, so I think shiftiness is more important than speed. KR should be JT's game but isn't, I wouldn't expect him to do better at PR.
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This is how I see it as well. I think that KR is generally about getting to a lane (like you said, usually making one cut) and getting upfield and accelerating as fast as possible. I also would have thought Thomas would be effective at this, as his acceleration is awesome. His problem seemed to be that he wasn't finding a lane to run to (not sure if that was more because of poor blocking or poor vision on his part), so his speed didn't do much other than getting him to the first line of coverage guys before he was tackled. I would think a guy like Homer would be good, but since he's our starting RB, I'd think instead we would go with someone like Lingard, Deejay or Cam Davis.

At PR, it's all about making that first guy miss, and then accelerating, so a bit more shiftiness is helpful. I'd think that Harley would be good at this spot. From what I've seen from Thomas, I wouldn't think this would fit him as well.
 
kryptonite said:
Wiggle is exactly what I didn't see from JT last season. He looked like he was always a step late with his cuts, like he expected the defenders to be a step slower than they actually were.

My take is that KR is about making one cut, then pure speed which JT has. PR is about making more people miss while you find a lane, so I think shiftiness is more important than speed. KR should be JT's game but isn't, I wouldn't expect him to do better at PR.
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I don’t think he was given many chances to show true wiggle. Bubbles? Screens? I don’t remember much.

To your point, KRs are about finding the hole and hitting it 100mph. He struggled to do that.

Having watched his high school highlight tapes a few times....combined with his route running skills, he can definitely make folks miss. ****, The Under Armour game was a clinic.

I just don’t think we gave him many opportunities.

I think he’ll definitely step up with increased reps/opportunities and another year adjusting to the speed of the college game.
 
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Our kickoff returns will not get better until the blocking gets better. Too many times last season the first guy down was able to knife right through our coverage and get to the return man. Dallas actually did a pretty poor job of blocking out there. Perhaps we found the one thing he doesn't do well. Fine by me. If his one flaw is blocking on kickoffs, I think I can live with it. I do love the idea of having him field punts, though.

On kickoffs, I'm getting stiff just thinking about LinGAWD and his 10.7 100 meter (100 yard) dash time. Wouldn't mind seeing Homer get a crack at it either, just because I like the way he finishes runs. I would personally guarantee that whoever got down field first to tackle Homer would not be the first one down the next time.
 
TheRichtShow said:
Agree. I think it will be either Pope or Thomas, and Pope probably wins out.

Deejay is just too heavy now to be a good PR. He's 220 lbs, which is fine for being an RB but he's not going to be effective as a returner.

For KR give me Lingard
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Agree with your point on deejay, Give me the guys who did it the best in high school back there by far, Gilbert Frierson and mark pope
 
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For some reason they like JT4 as primary KR. Maybe he has improved but he was very mediocre last year. Some guys just aren’t natural back there and he didn’t seem like he will ever be. Could be wrong but I’d give other guys a shot before JT
 
Didn't Harley average like 61 yards a punt return at STA his Sr year. I thought I read that somewhere a while back.
 
I’d like to see DJ return punts and kicks. He says he didn’t lose anything she’d/explosion wise. Hartley did say Jt was a lock at KR. I though he looked very slow returning kicks...maybe being overly cautious? Or like someone said, maybe the blocking was poor. I wouldn’t mind seeing Harley (tough for a little guy), Frierson, and Lingawd get some work there..and , Bethal and Pope. Nice thing is we finally have options. Now how do we block some frigging kicks for once? I do have faith Harley will fix the unit.
 
SPAMM said:
Berrios led the ACC in average yards per return. Interestingly, Miami received fewest number of punts, but, now that I think of it, that maybe a negative reflection on the defense.
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That probably has to do with 1. all of the turnovers. 2. we missed a G5 game which would have been filled with punts. 3. we sucked on 3rd down.
 
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MIATL said:
Dallas, to me, is the obvious choice.

Good hands. Lots of wiggle. More size than either of the other 2 guys.

Harley and Thomas have more straight-line speed. But at punt return, I prefer a guy with some wiggle.
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Lol at Dallas having more wiggle than Thomas??
 
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