Amendola as punt returner

Is this planned as a permanent thing, to reduce the wear on Edelman, or is it only because Amendola came out of the preseason as the healthier of the two?

I'm guessing the former. A highly valuable guy can return for a while, e.g. Troy Brown on punts, McCourty on kickoffs, or Faulk on both, but eventually BB tries to spread the workload.

Edelman is more valuable as a receiver. His big punt return skills are amazing but if I had to choose between the two - and we just might have to considering he gives it all on every play which has led to injuries in the past... I'd choose him as Brady's target every day of the week.

I think the marginal upgrade of Edelman returning punts over Amendola isn't big enough to compensate for the risk of Edelman getting injured returning punts. Amendola is no slouch as a returner. I also think there's a "do your job" element here. My recollection might be iffy here, but didn't Amendola start returning punts a lot more after he dropped back and covered that short punt last year? I can't remember the game but it was a notable moment at the time.

There's one more possibility -- giving Amendola touches as a kick returner just made him happier last season. And punt returner is a more natural fit for him than kick returning.

That said -- I don't recall who lined up as kick returner last night and had the honor of saluting the touchbacks as they went by.

Michael Williams returned a kick last night according to the box score. 8 yards.

Cantabrigian said:

Michael Williams returned a kick last night according to the box score. 8 yards.

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Deion Lewis was the KR on some plays as well.

Williams returned a squib kick, basically falling on it as soon as possible, like he should.

I like the idea. Edelman is the beat pr but far too valuable right now and less tomes hes exposed the better. I hope he is back at pr in the playoffs though and when were trailing maybe.

Punt returning requires such super quick decisions, instincts, and field sense.... experience and physical quickness also have to be key. Edelman is the perfect fit, I think, but I hate the risk which adds to all his other risky receiver routes.

The only questions I have about Amendola: 1) Isn't he more injury prone? 2) And more likely to fumble?

fxkane said:

Punt returning requires such super quick decisions, instincts, and field sense.... experience and physical quickness also have to be key. Edelman is the perfect fit, I think, but I hate the risk which adds to all his other risky receiver routes.

The only questions I have about Amendola: 1) Isn't he more injury prone? 2) And more likely to fumble?

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I love Edelman, and he's an incredible weapon as a punt returner. But I think we need to be situational about it. The difference between him (top 10 returner) and Amendola (around 21st among regular returners with at least 10 returns last season) is only 4 yards per return. If we're up 14, might as well let Amendola out there. If it's a tie game late in the 4th, maybe put Jules out there.

As for the fumble risk, I was wondering that myself so I took a look. Some of these sample sizes are really small so I wouldn't draw anything conclusive from them, but for what it's worth...

Receiving
Amendola: 279 catches, 4 fumbles, 1.4% fumble per play
Edelman: 277 catches, 2 fumbles, 0.7% fumble per play

Rushing
Amendola: 13 runs, 0 fumbles, 0.0% fumble per play
Edelman: 25 runs, 2 fumbles, 8.0% fumble per play

Kick returns
Amendola: 138 returns, 1 fumble, 0.7% fumble per play
Edelman: 26 returns, 0 fumbles, 0.0% fumble per play

Punt returns
Amendola: 107 catches, 5 fumbles, 4.7% fumble per play
Edelman: 132 returns, 10 fumbles, 7.5% fumble per play

Totals
Amendola: 537 touches, 10 fumbles, 1.9% fumble per play
Edelman: 460 touches, 14 fumbles, 3.0% fumble per play

It's obvious that punt returns are the most significant fumble risk for all plays. Kick returns seemed incredibly safe, and Amendola's numbers are inflated by having 5 times more of the safer play. But even if we remove kick returns from the equation, Amendola's fumble rate is around 2.2% while Jules is around 3%. It's not a huge difference, but at the very least, I think we don't have to worry about it being more of a fumble risk, but again, small sample sizes.

Edelman should at least do it for the playoffs. Dola is a pretty good returner in his own right, almost brought one to the house. But, Edelman is the GOAT.

Cantabrigian said:

Michael Williams returned a kick last night according to the box score. 8 yards.

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Somebody corralled the onside kick; I thought it was Gronk. Maybe it traveled 8 years while it was being batted around? I would have said more like 3.

When you have a Player who could potentially lead the League in receptions you do not risk his health on punt returns. Also we have NOTHING! behind him.

Slightly OT......After watching Gostkowski's kick offs split the uprights multiple times......I expect BB will give Ghost a shot or two to break the FG distance record. Damn that boy has added power this offseason

manxman2601 said:

I think the marginal upgrade of Edelman returning punts over Amendola isn't big enough to compensate for the risk of Edelman getting injured returning punts. Amendola is no slouch as a returner. I also think there's a "do your job" element here. My recollection might be iffy here, but didn't Amendola start returning punts a lot more after he dropped back and covered that short punt last year? I can't remember the game but it was a notable moment at the time.

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I think Edelman returning points over Amendola is much more than a marginal upgrade.

The goal is not to maximize the value on one specific play, but to best deploy 53 players to maximize the total value of ever play in every game over the course of the season. All things being kind of equal, the more players involved in producing value at something, the better.

I would note that Edelman is a pretty good backup punt returner.

Edelman is most likely going to get 100+ receptions and probably get hit on almost everyone of them being a slot receiver. I think it's a smart move to put DA as the returner (I thought he looked good last night) and Edelman can be the backup

hwc said:

The goal is not to maximize the value on one specific play, but to best deploy 53 players to maximize the total value of ever play in every game over the course of the season. All things being kind of equal, the more players involved in producing value at something, the better.

I would note that Edelman is a Great backup punt returner.

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Fixed it for ya.

1960Pats said:

I think Edelman returning points over Amendola is much more than a marginal upgrade.

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In this context, marginal doesn't mean small, it just means the difference between the two. Edelman offers significantly more over Amendola as a WR than he does as a punt returner. I'm OK with sacrificing his punt return upgrade if it lessens the risk of losing his WR upgrade.

And Edelman offers between 2-3 yards per return over Amendola, taking a quick look at his stats.

When they really need a big one, they'll use Edelman. Otherwise, Amendola is fine. Amendola looked very quick last night. He may have scored on that deep one that Brady missed.

I like 'Dola as a returner. Although, I wouldn't mind seeing him catch more passes and have either White, Lewis, or Harper as returner.