There are a few teams that seem to continually draft and develop LBs and defensive players into playmakers(Pitts/Balt)... and they almost never draft STers! Special teams is a place for those players who are not only backups but development players. The past few years we have DRAFTED STers and still our ST is below league average. In a day where the difference between keeping a guy and letting him go to free agency can cripple a team, why not use those last 3-4 spots on the roster to build depth instead of becoming overly specialized? I am not saying that special teams arent important(or as important), but that the long term well being of the team and the roster would be better served using every spot to maximize VALUE spots on the field, not the number of plays each player is on the field for. Making plays takes a special type of player, we need more of them on this team.
Reviewing the Steelers and Ravens previous drafts, I found the following regarding "STers" over the past 3 years.
Steelers:
Daniel Sepulveda
Ravens:
Yamon Figurs
Ladarius Webb
The Pats only drafted ONE pure special teams player in the last 3 years. That was Matt Slater. Yes, if you go back 4 years, you'll pick up Gostkowski and 5 years to pick up Willie Andrews. So, that kind of debunks the idea that the Steelers and Ravens don't draft special teamers.
Going to NFL.com, here is what I found about the Pats Special Teams.
1) Kick Offs - The Pats rank 6th in the league with 85 kick offs. They rank 4th in the league at 67.7 Yards per kick off. They are 8th in the league in Touch Backs. Now, they are 8th worst in returns allow
ed at 24.1 YPR. However, they've allowed NO Kick Returns for TDs. The Steelers are 15th in the league with 74 kick offs with an average of just 60 (59.96) yards per kick-off. They have the fewest TBs with 2 (not a good thing). They've given up 68 returns for an average of 25.1 YPR and 4 KRs for TDs. The Ravens are 9th in the league with 80 kick offs. The Ravens are 19th in the league with 64.2 yards per kick, and are 31st in the league in TBs. The Ravens are 5th in the league in Kick Return Yards allowed at 20.5
2) Punts - They have the 3rd fewest punts in the league with 53. They've had 7 punts OOBs and 6 punts downed. They've had 16 punts inside the 20 (30%) and 16 punts that resulted in fair catches. They've had 19 of 53 punts returned ( 35.8%) for 149 yards (7.84 YPR). They've also not allowed a punt return for TD.
The Ravens have punted 68 times and the Steelers have punted 70 times. The Ravens have had 7 punts go OOBs and 9 punts downed. The Steelers have had 2 punts downed and 15 go OOB. The Ravens have had 25 Punts go inside the 20 (29.4%) while the Steelers have had 25 (35.7%). The Ravens have had 36 returns (52.9%) for 280 yards ( 7.78 YPR) and the Steelers have had 32 returns (45.7%) for 322 yards (10 YPR).
3) Kick Returns - The Patriots have had the 3rd FEWEST Kick returns in the league at 48. They've gotten 1072 kick return yards for an average of 22.3 YPR (16th in the league) . The long has been 52 yards. They've had 34 returns of 20+ yards.. They've not had a kick return for a TD. It should be noted that, due to injuries and shuffling on the return unit, the Pats have used 7 different returners. Only Maroney and Edelman have more than 10 returns..
The Ravens are 2nd in kick returns (25.6 YPR) and the Steelers are 11th (23.8). The difference? Both teams have only 1 Returner with more than 30 returns. The next closest returner has less than 10.
4) Punt Returns - The Pats are tied for 9th in the league with 38 punt returns and 18 Fair Catches . They have 432 Punt Return Yards, good for an 11.4 YPR average and 5th best in the league.
The Steelers have had 34 Punt returns ( good for 16th) and the Ravens have had 37 (good for 12th). The Steelers are 20th with 7.3 YPR and the Ravens are 23rd with 6.9 YPR.
Now, looking at this, the only area that it seems to me that the Patriots are lacking is on kick returns. Otherwise, they are better than the Steelers and Ravens. Can they improve in ALL areas, of course they can. But you acting like the Pats just stink on special teams is ridiculous. The primary area they could use improvement is kick coverage. But kick coverage is also the area where they've had the most turnover. Plus, the new "anti-wedge" rules are so poorly enforced that teams that do it per the rules are actually penalized.
So, all in all, the Pats Special Teams are better than you think, The Ravens and Steelers Special Teams are worse than you think and both teams draft Special Teamers, though you don't want to admit it.
Even Willie Andrews returned good value for a 7th-rounder until his character meltdown. The ONLY draft pick I can think of in the past 5 years who might fit the description of overdrafting for ST is Bo Ruud.
