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Not only was yesterday's win against the Colts McCourty's best day from a safety perspective, but it was also his best kick returning day.
I am STILL hoping there is a better option than McCourty (and thought I we had it when we saw Edelman return a kick last week), but McCourty did make some improvement.
Coming into yesterday's game, McCourty returned 15 kickoffs and ONLY 7 were brought back to the 20 yard line. Which means there were more times (8) when he returned a kick and DID NOT make it back to the 20. That means more times than not the team would have been better off taking a knee in the endzone. Sure, on one of those failed attempts he caught the ball at the one (negating a kneeldown opportunity), but noting that a player caught the ball outside the goalline and STILL didn't make it past the 20 also doesn't help your argument.
Sure, returns do have the ability to hit the home run (TD against NY), but it also has the opportunity for negative (worse field position, penalities, fumble). We've seen much more of the latter than the former. Outside of his touchdown return, none of the other returns made it to the 30 yard line.
There is positive improvement though.
Yesterday McCourty returned 4 kicks and made it past the 20 on 3 of those tries.
I'd still like to see Edelman or someone else given a shot, but at least there were some positive steps taken yesterday for McCourty.
I am STILL hoping there is a better option than McCourty (and thought I we had it when we saw Edelman return a kick last week), but McCourty did make some improvement.
Coming into yesterday's game, McCourty returned 15 kickoffs and ONLY 7 were brought back to the 20 yard line. Which means there were more times (8) when he returned a kick and DID NOT make it back to the 20. That means more times than not the team would have been better off taking a knee in the endzone. Sure, on one of those failed attempts he caught the ball at the one (negating a kneeldown opportunity), but noting that a player caught the ball outside the goalline and STILL didn't make it past the 20 also doesn't help your argument.
Sure, returns do have the ability to hit the home run (TD against NY), but it also has the opportunity for negative (worse field position, penalities, fumble). We've seen much more of the latter than the former. Outside of his touchdown return, none of the other returns made it to the 30 yard line.
There is positive improvement though.
Yesterday McCourty returned 4 kicks and made it past the 20 on 3 of those tries.
I'd still like to see Edelman or someone else given a shot, but at least there were some positive steps taken yesterday for McCourty.