Pats Special Teams Might Be More Special In 2016

Many of us on this board are Matt Slater fans. For me, it's poetry in motion watching him streak down the field against two blockers and somehow slip past them and nail the punt returner in his tracks. He's even getting replays and special mentions from the broadcasters these days.

After reading today's Ian Logue column, UDFA Jonathan Jones is a national champion hurdler who runs a sub 4.4, and was a proficient special teams player in college. Is it possible that we might see someone faster than Slater on ST this year?

I know ST is not sexy, but imagine having Slater AND Jones get after it on each side of the field! How do you match up against that?

I think some aspects of ST need some TLC.

FG attempts- Excellent

XP attempts- Excellent (except for AFCCG but lets move on. That won't happen again ever.)

Punting & Coverage: Allen is great but the unit needs some remedial help Had one blocked. OK on coverage as their numbers are middle of the pack. I think injuries had something to do with it. They should be ok in 2016.

Kickoff Returns: Needs improvement. Need speed. I'd kill for Ellis Hobbs back there. The unit has been in decline for 3 years now.

Kickoff Coverage: Excellent

Punt Returns: Good to very good....BUT.... JE and DA are sure handed and excellent but beyond those two it's sketchy. We all remember the DEN Sunday night game.

Well, I guess it comes down to how good you expect a unit to be when the top two options are down.

As for kick returns, it seems low yield. How many kicks are actually returnable and what is the net gain.personally I feel those resources are better spent elsewhere.

Aren't punt and kickoff returns something that Cyrus Jones excels at?

We have reasonable hopes for improvement in this area.

Kamu Grugier-Hill looks like the should be a dynamic ST guy. Him, Slater, King, Ebner is a great start on coverage teams.

The Gr8est said:

Aren't punt and kickoff returns something that Cyrus Jones excels at?

We have reasonable hopes for improvement in this area.

Click to expand...

Yes on punt returns. Kickoffs not so much but has done it.

ST certainly could be sexy this year. Looking forward to some new blood ... KGH, CJ maybe JJ and DJF.
And of course Slater to conduct this bullet orchestra.

robertweathers said:

I think some aspects of ST need some TLC.

FG attempts- Excellent

XP attempts- Excellent (except for AFCCG but lets move on. That won't happen again ever.)

Punting & Coverage: Allen is great but the unit needs some remedial help Had one blocked. OK on coverage as their numbers are middle of the pack. I think injuries had something to do with it. They should be ok in 2016.

Click to expand...

These sorts of comments from a seasoned poster causes me to just SMH. The blocked punt was because of ONE guy (Darius Fleming) screwing up. Claiming that the unit needs "remedial help" when they had already rectified the problem (Fleming was cut) just makes no sense at all. Next you're going to start bashing them because their average punt was 46 yards with a net of 39.9 but ignore the fact that many of their punts came from mid-field so opponents were inside the 20 31 of 73 punts. (42.4%) of the time. That was good for 5th in the league with only Oakland, KC, The Giants and Steelers ahead of them.

BTW, opponents were held to 8.9 YPR on Pats punts. And that is despite the one that was returned for 83 yards for a TD.. They other 38 punts resulted in 264 yards and a 6.95 YPR.

robertweathers said:

Kickoff Returns: Needs improvement. Need speed. I'd kill for Ellis Hobbs back there. The unit has been in decline for 3 years now.

Click to expand...

Let's get some perspective here. The Pats only had 25 kick returns ALL YEAR. That is less than 2 per game. Of those 25 returns, 4 of them were from squib/on-side kicks (Michael Williams with 3 for 8 yards and Gronkowski with 1 for 5 yards). Not sure how Devin McCourty had 2 returns for zero yards, but that is what NFL.com lists. So those 6 returns really bring down the numbers.. When you look at the 18 returns by Amendola (21.5 YPR) and Martin (25.7 YPR), the numbers are a quite a bit better. Are you really going to penalize the team because opposing teams used short kicks to try and change things up and get back into games?

You can pine for Ellis Hobbs, but with the kick offs being moved up to the 35 yard line, it's unlikely that he'd be doing any better. There were 15 players ahead of Keyshawn Martin who had double digits in the number of returns on the season..

I think the additions of Grugier-Hill and Elandon Roberts will really help special teams. I think that King being on the team for the entire season will also help the team.

Questions that I see on the Pats Special Teams are:
1) Who will be the long snapper? Something is fishy with Cardona getting assigned to a ship.
2) Who will be the Personal Protector if Ebner isn't with the team due to the Olympics?
3) How quickly the line meshes so that each does their own job and there is no breakdown the way there was during the Philly game when Fleming didn't do his..
4) Who takes Ebner's spot on Kicks and Kick Returns? Will it be Grugier-Hill? Elandon Roberts? Someone else?
5) Who will emerge as the Kick Returner? Will it be Cyrus Jones? Keshawn Martin? DJ Foster? V'Angelo Bentley? Jonathan Jones (sub 4.35 - 40) ?

slater is amazing but he has a few flaws. For some reason he is horrible at preventing touchbacks on punts. And he isnt a great blocker or returner on kickoffs and I get annoyed when he forces guys to take a knee.

As long as he has the ability to eliminate the Hesters of the world he is a lock but how long can he keep this up. He battled injuries last year and he will lose a step at some point. Maybe he is a surprise cut and it truly would be a surprise.

ST is not sexy? Really? Come on now! Some of the sexiest plays have come from ST!

DaBruinz said:

These sorts of comments from a seasoned poster causes me to just SMH. The blocked punt was because of ONE guy (Darius Fleming) screwing up. Claiming that the unit needs "remedial help" when they had already rectified the problem (Fleming was cut) just makes no sense at all. Next you're going to start bashing them because their average punt was 46 yards with a net of 39.9 but ignore the fact that many of their punts came from mid-field so opponents were inside the 20 31 of 73 punts. (42.4%) of the time.

That was good for 5th in the league with only Oakland, KC, The Giants and Steelers ahead of them.

BTW, opponents were held to 8.9 YPR on Pats punts. And that is despite the one that was returned for 83 yards for a TD.. They other 38 punts resulted in 264 yards and a 6.95 YPR.

Click to expand...

Do you want to take away the entire Philly game too? That'll make them statistically even better. I thought that they missed too many tackles last year and were non consistent enough. 2014 was better.

DaBruinz said:

Let's get some perspective here. The Pats only had 25 kick returns ALL YEAR. That is less than 2 per game. Of those 25 returns, 4 of them were from squib/on-side kicks (Michael Williams with 3 for 8 yards and Gronkowski with 1 for 5 yards). Not sure how Devin McCourty had 2 returns for zero yards, but that is what NFL.com lists. So those 6 returns really bring down the numbers.. When you look at the 18 returns by Amendola (21.5 YPR) and Martin (25.7 YPR), the numbers are a quite a bit better. Are you really going to penalize the team because opposing teams used short kicks to try and change things up and get back into games?

You can pine for Ellis Hobbs, but with the kick offs being moved up to the 35 yard line, it's unlikely that he'd be doing any better. There were 15 players ahead of Keyshawn Martin who had double digits in the number of returns on the season..

Click to expand...

The KR team is weak on playmaking and have been on the decline for 3 years. Take away Williams, DMC, Gronk as you suggest and they are 20th in RT yards. They can do better.

DaBruinz said:

I think the additions of Grugier-Hill and Elandon Roberts will really help special teams. I think that King being on the team for the entire season will also help the team.

Questions that I see on the Pats Special Teams are:
1) Who will be the long snapper? Something is fishy with Cardona getting assigned to a ship.
2) Who will be the Personal Protector if Ebner isn't with the team due to the Olympics?
3) How quickly the line meshes so that each does their own job and there is no breakdown the way there was during the Philly game when Fleming didn't do his..
4) Who takes Ebner's spot on Kicks and Kick Returns? Will it be Grugier-Hill? Elandon Roberts? Someone else?
5) Who will emerge as the Kick Returner? Will it be Cyrus Jones? Keshawn Martin? DJ Foster? V'Angelo Bentley? Jonathan Jones (sub 4.35 - 40) ?

Click to expand...

Are the Olympics still going on when we start the season?

robertweathers said:

Do you want to take away the entire Philly game too? That'll make them statistically even better. I thought that they missed too many tackles last year and were non consistent enough. 2014 was better.

Click to expand...

8.9 YPR allowed is still pretty damn good. But yeah, pretend like it's not.

robertweathers said:

The KR team is weak on playmaking and have been on the decline for 3 years. Take away Williams, DMC, Gronk as you suggest and they are 20th in RT yards. They can do better.

Click to expand...

Actually, they haven't been on the decline for 3 years. They slid from and adjusted 24.49 YPR (2013) to 23.10 (2014) to 23.47 (2015). Now, the number of returns they've made has plummeted from an adjusted 37 in 2013 to an adjusted 19. And that is what the LEAGUE wanted.. To have fewer kick returns because they claim it's the most dangerous play in the game. And i believe that teams would rather have Brady start at the 20 than let them start at the 30-40 yard line..

DaBruinz said:

8.9 YPR allowed is still pretty damn good. But yeah, pretend like it's not.

Click to expand...

It is good. Last year they had lapses and were inconsistent. You can have good overall stats and still be inconsistent. Pats had some dominant coverage games and some not so great. As I said earlier, injuries had a little bit to do with the punt coverage.

DaBruinz said:

Actually, they haven't been on the decline for 3 years. They slid from and adjusted 24.49 YPR (2013) to 23.10 (2014) to 23.47 (2015). Now, the number of returns they've made has plummeted from an adjusted 37 in 2013 to an adjusted 19. And that is what the LEAGUE wanted.. To have fewer kick returns because they claim it's the most dangerous play in the game. And i believe that teams would rather have Brady start at the 20 than let them start at the 30-40 yard line..

Click to expand...

I believe you but I don't know where these adjusted #s are coming from. FootballOutsiders?

The # of KRs has gone down substantially but the league average in KRs since 2012 is 23.6, 23.4, 23.8, 23.5. Pats have trended downward since 2013.

Happy to look at adjusted # and see how that compares to league average

Not a visitor of other message boards, wonder if this attention to detail is an NFL anomaly or standard practice?? I suspect that many teams, because there are so many continual changes to coaching staff that they never reach this level of game refinement..

DarrylS said:

Not a visitor of other message boards, wonder if this attention to detail is an NFL anomaly or standard practice?? I suspect that many teams, because there are so many continual changes to coaching staff that they never reach this level of game refinement..

Click to expand...

Actually, the Colts do too. Their trick fake punt comes to mind!

ChessToCheckers said:

Actually, the Colts do too. Their trick fake punt comes to mind!

Click to expand...

Cut them some slack. It's not their fault that the key player during their fake punt practice wasn't at the game. It's not like they could have prepared two players.