Lets talk kick returners and kickers (1 Viewer)

[bigreese82]

I play in a league that gives substantial yardage numbers for kick returners. What observations did you see about various kickoff teams, kickers, or kick returners? what units look bad? which kickers should you avoid having your returner face? which returners are on bad defenses that should have alot of opportunities? Which kickers have strong legs that your returner wont get many opportunities against?

would love to have a strength of schedule or ranking for kick returners

kick returners that impressed me are R.Cobb, P.Peterson, T.Ginn

Kickers with strong "touchback friendly" legs?

Kick returners who have some offensive production?

Bad coverage units?

early week two sleepers as returnmen

 

[belljr]

Pick up the guy that is playing against the Chargers every week

 

[DawnBTVS]

One thing I noticed was the aggressiveness of returners... so they'd take returns out to the 20-25 but get an additional 8-10 yards added on due to taking them out from so deep in their end zone.

 

[bigreese82]

Here are the kickers that had more than 50% of there kickoffs(3 minimum KOs) as touchbacks in week 1

1. Scobee-jac 5 KOs 5 TB 100%

2. Hartman-Hou 7 KOs 6 TB 85%

3. Hanson-Det 6 KOs 5 TB 83%

4. Koenen-TB 4 KOs 3 TB 75%

5. Gould-Chi 7 KOs 5 TB 71%

5. Folk-NYJ 6 KOs 4 TB 67%

6. Bironas-TN 3 KOs 2 TB 67%

7. Morsted-NO 6 KOs 4 TB 67%

8. Feely-Ari 5 KOs 3 TB 60%

9. Gano-Was 5 KOs 3 TB 60%

10.Crosby-GB 7 KOs 4 TB 57%

11.Cundiff-Bal 7 KOs 4 TB 57%

12.Brown-Sea 4 KOs 2 TB 50%

12.Mare-Car 4 KOs 2 TB 50%

13.Nugent-Cin 6 KOs 3 TB 50%

14.Scifres-SD 4 KOs 2 TB 50%

 

[sho nuff]

Pick up the guy that is playing against the Chargers every week

Packers too...til further notice...special teams still sucks yet Slocum keeps his job.

 

[Touchdown There]

T Ginn was in "the zone" on Sunday.

 

[cheese]

Here are the kickers that had more than 50% of there kickoffs(3 minimum KOs) as touchbacks in week 11. Scobee-jac 5 KOs 5 TB 100%2. Hartman-Hou 7 KOs 6 TB 85%3. Hanson-Det 6 KOs 5 TB 83%4. Koenen-TB 4 KOs 3 TB 75%5. Gould-Chi 7 KOs 5 TB 71%5. Folk-NYJ 6 KOs 4 TB 67%6. Bironas-TN 3 KOs 2 TB 67%7. Morsted-NO 6 KOs 4 TB 67% 8. Feely-Ari 5 KOs 3 TB 60%9. Gano-Was 5 KOs 3 TB 60%10.Crosby-GB 7 KOs 4 TB 57%11.Cundiff-Bal 7 KOs 4 TB 57%12.Brown-Sea 4 KOs 2 TB 50%12.Mare-Car 4 KOs 2 TB 50%13.Nugent-Cin 6 KOs 3 TB 50%14.Scifres-SD 4 KOs 2 TB 50%

These aren't necessarily bad guys to play against if you're concerned about ST TD's rather than racking up yardage. I've seen some teams (Sea/Cin most blatantly) where the kickers now aim for kicking it out the back of the end zone because of the extra 5 yards. The problem is, they are severely decreasing their hang time to do so. Any time one of their kicks came up a yard or 2 short, the KR was catching a line drive with tons of room to get going.

 

[Diamond]

Be wary of kickoff specialists and/or punters doing kickoffs:

Thomas Morstead, NO (punter)

David Buehler, DAL (2nd kicker)

Brett Hartmann, HOU (punter)

Michael Koenen, TB (punter)

Are there any others?

Other big-legged kickers:

Olindo Mare, CAR

Billy Cundiff, BAL

Graham Gano, WAS

Josh Scobee, JAX

Sebastian Janikowski, OAK

Matt Prater, DEN (or is it the thin air?)

NFL.com tracks touchback percentage here

There were only 4 over 75% in touchbacks for week 1. Really expected there to be more. Perhaps this is all overblown, or like DawnBTVS said, KRs are being more aggressive.

NFL.com has the preseason stats too if you want more data points.

There's a good thread in the IDP forum about who's doing kick/punt returns.