Kick Returners

[Coach55]

OK - Last year when McKelvin came on the scene, they put him in as the starting KR since McGee was the starting CB. My personal opinion is McGee is a better return man. Now that both McKelvin and McGee are both starting, shouldn't they both split return time? Even better, why can't Roscoe Parrish return kicks - why should we be risking our starting secondary when you have the NFL's most prolific punt returner who is your #4 receiver on the bench?

[TheBlackMamba]

OK - Last year when McKelvin came on the scene, they put him in as the starting KR since McGee was the starting CB. My personal opinion is McGee is a better return man. Now that both McKelvin and McGee are both starting, shouldn't they both split return time? Even better, why can't Roscoe Parrish return kicks - why should we be risking our starting secondary when you have the NFL's most prolific punt returner who is your #4 receiver on the bench?

 

A. McKelvin has the highest kick return average last year so he is an outstanding kick returner

B. McGee is getting a bit older and isnt able to handle the double duty

C. Kick returning and punt returning are two different things. Kick returning is about exploding through a seam and straight line speed. Punt returning is about shiftyness. and start-stop speed. The old saying goes on punt returns if you make one person miss it a good return, two people miss its a TD.

[downsoufbfan]

Roscoe goes down in a drop of a hat as well.

[Coach55]

A. McKelvin has the highest kick return average last year so he is an outstanding kick returner

B. McGee is getting a bit older and isnt able to handle the double duty

C. Kick returning and punt returning are two different things. Kick returning is about exploding through a seam and straight line speed. Punt returning is about shiftyness. and start-stop speed. The old saying goes on punt returns if you make one person miss it a good return, two people miss its a TD.

A. I am not going to argue that he is a great kick returner

B. McGee is all of 28 years old. He is far from too old to handle double duty. When he was returning kicks, IMO was a lot bigger of a threat to return a kick than McKelvin (not to short-change McKelvin by any means).

C. I agree that they are different styles, however, Parrish has good vision - plus he is expendible. I would rather lose him to injury then either of the McFly boys. The KR talent drop-off would not be that material.

[GrudginglyOptimistic]

Roscoe goes down in a drop of a hat as well.

Parrish is a bit smurf like on paper with his size as measured on paper. However, his very good punt return average and his willingness to play a very tough game in the slot as the #3 WR are both real world indications that describing him with the waifish sophistry you use does not fit the reality of the situation.

 

My guess is that if you had to choose your partner in a knife fight between Roscoe or someone writing a commentary on his play, the person who chose the guy with the computer to be their second would be very dead.

 

Yet, I recognize the comparison of a pro athlete to us armchair athletes is not really fair (though your claim he goes down if there is a stiff wind sets a weak boundary for fairness) its probably more realistic to compare him to other atheletes.

 

Is Parrish as tough a guy willing to throw himself into any return?

 

In general, I would say his record of injury indicates a bit too much of a willingness to throw himself into harms way. In addition, I am wishing today that McKelvin was a bit more willing to simply take a knee than launch himself into a return with no blocking help whatsoever.

[downsoufbfan]

Parrish is a bit smurf like on paper with his size as measured on paper. However, his very good punt return average and his willingness to play a very tough game in the slot as the #3 WR are both real world indications that describing him with the waifish sophistry you use does not fit the reality of the situation.

 

My guess is that if you had to choose your partner in a knife fight between Roscoe or someone writing a commentary on his play, the person who chose the guy with the computer to be their second would be very dead.

 

Yet, I recognize the comparison of a pro athlete to us armchair athletes is not really fair (though your claim he goes down if there is a stiff wind sets a weak boundary for fairness) its probably more realistic to compare him to other atheletes.

 

Is Parrish as tough a guy willing to throw himself into any return?

 

In general, I would say his record of injury indicates a bit too much of a willingness to throw himself into harms way. In addition, I am wishing today that McKelvin was a bit more willing to simply take a knee than launch himself into a return with no blocking help whatsoever.

True that, I just think B. April was more power along with the speed on his returns.

[Billadelphia]

This is a good topic, and my guess is that whomever we put back there will have to get used to the new NFL rule about the two man wall. The last few years, we had a bigger wall in front for the KR to work with, sometimes even 4 people within arms length of each other.

 

I think that McKelvin is the guy to go with since he's younger and not our #1 CB. I think that we need to give him the chance to get settled this season and he'll be fine. If the fumbling continues to be a problem with him, it wouldn't surprise me to see Fred Jackson (after week 3) back there before McGee. Remember that Jackson returned some punts & kicks last year and did well.

 

I'm a big fan of McGee, but I think that his days of returning kicks are past him because of his importance to our D.

[GrudginglyOptimistic]

This is a good topic, and my guess is that whomever we put back there will have to get used to the new NFL rule about the two man wall. The last few years, we had a bigger wall in front for the KR to work with, sometimes even 4 people within arms length of each other.

 

I think that McKelvin is the guy to go with since he's younger and not our #1 CB. I think that we need to give him the chance to get settled this season and he'll be fine. If the fumbling continues to be a problem with him, it wouldn't surprise me to see Fred Jackson (after week 3) back there before McGee. Remember that Jackson returned some punts & kicks last year and did well.

 

I'm a big fan of McGee, but I think that his days of returning kicks are past him because of his importance to our D.

On target!

 

McGee demonstrated that he is the go to guy for us on D (though the way that WRs were productive in yards though not productive in producing points for virtually the entire game was painful though effective in the ultimate stat to watch). He probably is not the guy for us to give extra KR duty to and take also take additional risks with the way we play our D.

 

McKelvin is a high risk/high reward player on KR. We got the get burned part of that equation on Monday.

 

The interesting thing to me was McKelvin's reaction that he would do the same thing again. One actually needs a bit of that attitude to be the type player he is.

 

My guess is that actually no one likes being embarassed and McKelvin will be a little bit more reluctant to take big risks when there are huge upsides to playing it safe. If he takes from this never take risks he is useless as a return guy and I hope his post game talk has a bit of reality attached to it. If he takes from it still take risks but not all the time when the risks without blocking of getting stripped are so high and the downside of getting stripped are so devastating, and you do not NEED to make a play to win then if he loses taking this risk he will be a better player.

 

2 downsides against you then take the risks, but three downsides probably not unless you NEED a score to win.