When I reached out to my friends regarding the special teams units for the Bears, my questions were met with a resounding, “Really?” And the content that is about to follow will reflect that sentiment. I tried to ask pointed questions. I think I failed.
Cairo Santos can’t kick long field goals. Do you care? “Yes.” [No joke, this was the entirety of the response from TWO of the four!]
Do you think Jonathan Kim can take the kicking job this summer? “Is that where Kim ended up? I didn’t even know that. But that makes a lot of sense because Kim has a big leg. Might be worth watching, but I think I would be surprised if they moved on from Santos.”
What is the best stat we can use to evaluate punters? “You wouldn’t believe how detailed we get with our punt teams. Unless you’re tracking every punt, and what your particularly expectations are for every punt, you can’t properly evaluate the position. But, in general, a punt that puts the other guys inside their own 10 is never a bad thing. Always strange to that the public facing stat is inside 20.”
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Say something interesting about specials. “Kickers are becoming the NFL’s relief pitchers. You hold your breath when the guy shows up to camp and just hope he can still get the job done.”
That’s because if you come back to the United States you would be arrested and jailed for your indiscretions silly
I love London, Paris, Madrid, Lisbon, Zurich, as well as Rome and Cairo.
I think the most underrated aspect of having a guy like Santos who is accurate but lacks in length is the adverse effect it has on play calling between the 40s. The extra 10-15 yards that you’ll be able to get an extra three points is much less important than the threat of being able to get the field goal from distance. The need to be inside the 35 to walk away with any points whatsoever severely limits what the OC/HC can call in the middle of the field and significantly narrows what the defense has to account for on… Read more »
(In honor of our old friend George Wendt, read this in a Bob Swerski voice) Special Teams – I have some toughts. First of all, Ben is gonna get rid of Santos. Ben will always get da first down and den score a TD, so no need to roster a kicker. Kmet can kick the XP’s but we’ll prolly go for 2 anyway so we don’t hafta waste da roster spot. And Caleb can do any-ting so he can kick da pig skin off to da udder team when it’s 8-zip, 16-zip or whatever. As for dat Ossie punter. What… Read more »
These arent life or death questions. However, here goes. Santos cant kick beyond 50. Yes. that matters . I think they will replace him because NFL life is now about scoring points- offense. Ben Johnson is about offense. Not sure if it will be Kim cause kickers are a crapshoot, but he’ll get the 1st chance. Punters? I think Taylor is fine and that will be borne out this year again. Special teams aren’t usually noticed until the coverage breaks down or the returns are unusually bad or extremely good. It says something that Hightower was retained by Johnson. Hopefully… Read more »