Am I the only one here (and I sincerely doubt it) who---

---wishes Brady would simply lay down the law and say "Devin, much as you want to, you are NOT going down on special teams anymore" ???

Doesn't he recall what ended Blake Countess' 2012 season?   Or scared us with Jabrill's ankle Saturday?  

He's almost unarguably the conference's top wideout, and maybe among the top five in the country. With his speed, obviously-improved hands, matchup-nightmare height (witness his catch in back of endzone for third TD, with AppySt DB glued to him) and above all (for us), his equal-to-the-nanosecond wavelength match with his pitch-n-catch partner (at least the other Devin says so), why on earth would our staff risk losing such a formidable offensive weapon in a capacity (STs) he isn't needed in?  At all?

If BH should make any exception to his "They're good enough to start, they're good enough for ST duty" philosophy, who else but DF would you have it be?

I agree 100 percent.

I disagree. Special Teams are important. You play to win the games. Desmond and Charles ran back kicks. Marquis Walker was a threat to block punts. It's the risk you take, but you have to take it.

fishgoblue22 wrote:

I disagree.  Special Teams are important.  You play to win the games.  Desmond and Charles ran back kicks.  Marquis Walker was a threat to block punts.  It's the risk you take, but you have to take it.

Agree AND disagree...

Agree that Desmond and Charles could be worth 6 points every time they fielded a punt.  But that's return duty, not coverage duty.
I could be wrong, but I don't think Desmond, who was strictly an offensive player, did coverage duty.  (Sidenote: I also agree, one thousand percent with your statement "STs are important")...

But I disagree---and strongly---that we have to take [that risk] with Funchess. And all he plays is coverage duty on STs, no?

We have plenty of athletes who can cover punts and kickoffs...and many of them, like Gedeon, are non-starters (now, at least), and some are starters...like Clark. But the ones who are starters are better conditioned/built to take the punishment that comes with sliding down, slamming into a blocker, and making tackles on speeding kick returners than is a wide receiver...even one who blocks downfield when not receiving, as DF does. To further my point, during kick coverage, it's so often a "free-for-all-scrum" around the ballcarrier, involving so many players, that tangled-up limbs, or legs pinned to the ground and twisted at the knee/ankle, are almost the rule.

No coach would ever let his starting quarterback go down on special teams---and in our case, ours is as good an all-around athlete, almost, as Funchess.  

One thing I'm convinced we can all agree 100% on, Fish---and I don't mean only you, Shoes and I, I mean everyone here---is that our offense would suffer a huge blow if DF went down with injury.  And while admittedly, as you stress, it can happen on any play, any "duty", why increase the odds?

fishgoblue22 wrote:

I disagree.  Special Teams are important.  You play to win the games.  Desmond and Charles ran back kicks.  Marquis Walker was a threat to block punts.  It's the risk you take, but you have to take it.

You don't have to take the chance. As I said elsewhere when Desmond was returning punts a far higher percentage of punts were returned nationally and far more for TDs. In today's game with spread punt formations and a greater emphasis on not allowing returns, the chances of breaking one are much reduced.

Charles was really an average punt returner who had one great punt return (he wasn't nearly as good as Carter, Desmond, Alexander or Breaston). Woodson 40 punt returns for an average of 8 yards per return. AC 79 returns @11.5, Alexander 42 @12.7 and 4 TDs, Howard 26 @13.0, and Breaston 127 @12.6 4 TDS.

'shoes

michmike wrote:

...Doesn't he recall what ended Blake Countess' 2012 season?   Or scared us with Jabrill's ankle Saturday? ...

and Drake Johnson last year. Who knows if that could have helped our run game (hindsight says chances are probably not) but Drake came out of training camp as the #2 RB but tore his ACL after 3 carries in the first game of the year on a special teams play.

agree 100% with michmike

I agree and disagree.

Certainly don't want to see our top player hurt on special teams. However, I recall Marquise Walker's senior season when he was on the punt return team and blocked 2-3 kicks for us simply because of his speed and his length. Funchess could do the same for us, which could win us a couple ballgames.

I think a lot that goes into this decision is Funchess' durability. If he's injury-prone, leave him off special teams. If he's durable and injury isn't a big issue with him, put him on those teams and let's excel in the kicking game.