Refugee Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 (edited) This is a thread that I hope falls by the wayside by midseason because I just really want an unremarkable , middle of the road ST that just simply doesn’t cost us games, trophies etc. No comedy of errors, no absolute meltdowns, no punters getting headlines for felonies(OK, that’s the Bills)- just plain old vanilla ST would be a huge step forward. So, this is a really important part of becoming a better football team, but we just need to be “not shockingly awful” to improve. I do think coach Bisaccia brings some gravitas and energy to try to turn this “Wefense” around. Any player who was rostered last year has got to have a knot in their stomach to remind them that it is still an important phase of the game. As we get close to the eve of the 53, have we seen anything from our young guys that brings hope? It was a pretty mixed bag in the preseason and not a very good mix. I’ve heard coaches talk about the challenges of getting ST evaluation when you have inconsistent rosters and of course, some of our returns that were not the greatest decisions would not get taken out in the regular season. Coaches wanted everything returned to get a look at the units which means guys were in compromised positions some of the time. We’ll see which players make up our ST core but any depth guy has got to be ready and some starters will definitely be in the mix. This is risky, AJ Dillon went down on ST in the divisional game and that was a huge loss when a few more first downs might have swung the outcome. Bisaccia has gotten Nixon and Leavitt into camp but we’ll see who sticks. Amari had a few nice returns but some face palms in there. One player we haven’t seen is Watson. He could be a threat at KR and even gunner if we’re not afraid to expose him to some dirty work. The other huge question, do we have our specialists sorted out? Crosby has to be close and I expect him to play week 1 but that whole unit has not played together much this offseason. Whatever happens, we can’t be as bad as last year right? Right? Edited August 28, 2022 by Refugee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brat&Beer Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 They seem to have fixed the kicking part. No blocked kicks or punts. No real bad snaps. No bad holds. Am Rod has been decent in the return game. The issue has been coverage units. Hopefully focusing on a core unit once they are down to 53 will help. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PossibleCabbage Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 Would you accept- The Special Teams are good, but a preferred starter on offense or defense has to miss time because of an injury caused on special teams? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Refugee Posted August 28, 2022 Author Share Posted August 28, 2022 (edited) 7 minutes ago, PossibleCabbage said: Would you accept- The Special Teams are good, but a preferred starter on offense or defense has to miss time because of an injury caused on special teams? I would hate it, but think we need all hands on deck. We’ve seen the results of not putting our best out there and other teams have made note of it. It’s a weakness that will be exploited until we fix it. Guys can get injured on any given play. If a depth guy can get the job done, play him before a starter but no playing scared. Edited August 28, 2022 by Refugee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemike778 Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 4 hours ago, PossibleCabbage said: Would you accept- The Special Teams are good, but a preferred starter on offense or defense has to miss time because of an injury caused on special teams? No not really. Special Teams aren't that important and are unlikely to make you lose games. Last year was extreme - our ST was by some distance the worst I have ever seen in the NFL and reached level of incompetence I didn't think was even possible. The number of errors in the playoff loss was astonishing. Even with our offence performing very badly and the Special Teams being inexplicably bad, we still could have won that game. Other teams can churn the bottom of the roster, use these guys in Special Teams and perform acceptably. We don't need to use starters on Special Teams, we just need professional players who aren't utterly useless at playing there. I'm not worried about it this year. We have got rid of the punter, holder, long snapper, coaches and most of the core special teams players. I always thought it was funny that people said Malik Taylor had a shot at the roster due to his special teams skills whereas for me anyone involved in last years' debacle was a huge negative. There isn't much else left other than Crosby if he is fit and to be honest I would probably go full clean sweep and cut him too. Leave no trace of what was there last year. We don't need starters. We just need a proper coach which we have got and guys who can do the absolute basics and we should be OK. Top 25 is perfectly fine for Special Teams all we need is for them to not lose us games. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemike778 Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 4 hours ago, Brat&Beer said: They seem to have fixed the kicking part. No blocked kicks or punts. No real bad snaps. No bad holds. Am Rod has been decent in the return game. The issue has been coverage units. Hopefully focusing on a core unit once they are down to 53 will help. That's the big thing. Last year the unit literally couldn't do anything right. Couldn't kick, couldn't hold, couldn't snap, couldn't block, couldn't cover, couldn't keep hold of kick returns, couldn't catch punts. Every single thing they did turned into a big smelly turd. You can't fix that or even know where to start. Every single part of Special Teams went wrong at some point. If they are garbage at literally everything what do you do ? If there is just one area that is causing problems then you can work it and rethink the personnel. You should be able to sort it especially when you are using the first 53. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexGreen#20 Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 We'll know a lot more on Tuesday. That roster composition is going to tell us a lot about the resource level that Gute is going to give Bissacia to make this unit standout. On the positive side: We have a punter with an almost identical leg to Bojorquez, minus the holding problems. Our coverage teams will be more seasoned than last year, even if Gute totally ****s Bissacia on roster bodies. Our blocking teams will be more seasoned than last year, even if Gute totally ****s Bissacia on roster bodies. There are more ST bodies on the roster than we've ever had in camp. On the minus side: Mason Crosby is now a year older and nobody who will still be in the league on Wednesday had a lower FG% than him last year. Our Long Snapper is entirely unproven. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scoremore Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 (edited) Preseason has been horrible for ST units. God awful. Listened to MLF presser. They did use several different players at the bottom of the roster on the units for evaluation. So guess you could say that's a positive in that during the regular season the best guys will hopefully be out there. He was ticked off at the mental mistakes and lack of effort by a few players as well. Don't know where it's going we have a decent ST coach and it's been a point of emphasis. Got to think the unit will improve. I'll be holding my breath on every kick and punt return though. Rome wasn't built in a day so might be a little up and down early on. Just hope as the season progresses we see steady improvement. Middle of the pack would be a huge victory if they can achieve that this year. Edited August 28, 2022 by Scoremore 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Refugee Posted August 28, 2022 Author Share Posted August 28, 2022 (edited) 12 hours ago, mikemike778 said: Other teams can churn the bottom of the roster, use these guys in Special Teams and perform acceptably. We don't need to use starters on Special Teams, we just need professional players who aren't utterly useless at playing there. We don't need starters. We just need a proper coach which we have got and guys who can do the absolute basics and we should be OK. Top 25 is perfectly fine for Special Teams all we need is for them to not lose us games. This is the issue, though. If the depth guys are not adequate, you’ve got to get some starters in there to get the job done or opponents will attack our weak link, especially in the biggest moments. We’ve seen it, and not just last year. I recall the 9ers had some starters in on kick block and Debo returning the ball for them made up most of their positive yards in that game. I think there is a balance and ways to be smart about it. For example, having some top lineman in on kick block is different than having your top CB scream down the open field in coverage. You accept there is risk on every play but some plays are more chaotic and move at higher speed. We lost AJD on ST vs. the 9ers, they almost lost Debo but he was able to return and AJ wasn’t. This might have made the difference to get them in range to win on the FG (that we only defended with 10). All told, I’m with you, I just don’t want ST catastrophes but we’ve had enough over the years I don’t see how you can start with they’re not important and unlikely to lose games. Edited August 28, 2022 by Refugee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spartacus Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 Mason Crosby improving would be the best result dude was great in 2020 and 2019 but 2021 was ranked 32 of 34 kickers... you just can't have that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Refugee Posted August 28, 2022 Author Share Posted August 28, 2022 8 minutes ago, Spartacus said: Mason Crosby improving would be the best result dude was great in 2020 and 2019 but 2021 was ranked 32 of 34 kickers... you just can't have that. I hope he can get right. Not being available all of camp doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. We need a succession plan there and probably needed it two years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smidgeon Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 3 hours ago, Spartacus said: Mason Crosby improving would be the best result dude was great in 2020 and 2019 but 2021 was ranked 32 of 34 kickers... you just can't have that. Well, the holder and long snapper are long gone. Something tells me the field goal struggles weren't Crosby. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazrimiv Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 (edited) My expectations for the ST units... Edited August 28, 2022 by Mazrimiv 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brat&Beer Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 Nothing to worry about. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Refugee Posted August 28, 2022 Author Share Posted August 28, 2022 I’m optimistic, but more in a whistling past the graveyard kind of way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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