Why our special teams suck.

[Happy Panther]

Brentson Buckner made a good point on WFNZ a few weeks ago.

He says that coaches and salary don't mean anything. It's all about the talent.

The best special teams units are made up of backup players (linebackers, RBs, etc) who are future starters just waiting for their turn. He named one team that had 10 special-teamers that all went on to become successful starters if I remember correctly.

When is the last time one of our special-teamers moved up to a legitimate starting roll. I'm sure there are some but the last one I recall is smitty.

I think for this reason we aren't going to have great special teams until we develop depth on our roster. We don't have that right now so I don't see us doing well on ST.

Just a theory.

[Zod]

That's a hard thing to do without a legitimate GM

[Jase]

Or you could be the bears and just field a ST unit that is half starters.

[carolina-chuck]

True

[Happy Panther]

Or you could be the bears and just field a ST unit that is half starters.

Kuechly would be a beast!

[MHS831]

Hardy was a special teamer.

However, your pointt is decent because some teams reload because their depth has starting capability. Hurney had no plan, so we never reload like Pittsburgh or NE-

[Growl]

We are what happens we you build a team the Marty Hurney way.

We have gaping holes in our starting line up. We have zero depth. We have a plethora of failed draft picks on a team that refused to supplement ourselves with FA. We have over 100 million dollars in resources wasted up on meaningless positions

[jtnc]

Our coverage has been pretty damn good since Colin Jones arrived, it's the kicking, punting, and blocks on returns that needs improvement.

[rayzor]

We are what happens we you build a team the Marty Hurney way.

We have gaping holes in our starting line up. We have zero depth. We have a plethora of failed draft picks on a team that refused to supplement ourselves with FA. We have over 100 million dollars in resources wasted up on meaningless positions

so focused on not letting good players that you draft get away that you neglect holes left behind.

the more i think about how hurney threw money at his "core" when they had all that cap space available just pisses me off. just think about what they could have done had they not thrown so much of the cap at just a few guys that probably won't even be on the team in the next couple years.

[panthers55]

This whole premise is stupid given that we not only had future starters on special teams but we had some starters on special teams. Guys like Gary Barnidge, Thomas Davis come to mind. We used a number of guys who were in the regular rotation on special teams.

[rayzor]

Our coverage has been pretty damn good since Colin Jones arrived, it's the kicking, punting, and blocks on returns that needs improvement.

i think bruce dehaven will be able to help with a lot of that. the guy knows how to build and run good special teams units.

i disagree that coaching has nothing to do with it. investing more resources will help, but the guys should be better having someone with experience helping them prepare.

[Gabeking]

That's a hard thing to do without a legitimate GM

well now we have one

[rayzor]

This whole premise is stupid given that we not only had future starters on special teams but we had some starters on special teams. Guys like Gary Barnidge, Thomas Davis come to mind. We used a number of guys who were in the regular rotation on special teams.

agreed here.

one of the problems that we've had over the years is that we used STs as that place on the roster that we stuck guys without a starting gig. it didn't matter if they had ever done well on STs. it wasn't seen as a priority. some of the guys that we had were solid contributors elsewhere and/or vying for a starting gig.

we just haven't had good coaching or enough good ST players.