Panthers 2011 Mid-Season Review: Special Teams

Here’s a simple (if long), from-the-hip series of observations regarding the special teams’ performance to date:

1) Coaching - The special teams unit has been bad for years now. We’ve changed the special teams coach twice (once under Fox and again with Rivera’s new staff), correct? It doesn’t seem to have improved things very much. Personally, I think there are two compounding problems in this area. One, with each coaching change, maybe they keep installing a new scheme on punt coverage, kickoff coverage, blocking assignments, etc.? If so, there’s little continuity there. The players keep having to adapt. Maybe that’s part of the problem? Secondly, I expect coaches to actually coach their players. If a unit is underperforming (and it has for quite some time now), I expect the coach to address it. Drill the players again on the basics. Spend extra reps on special teams in practice. Repeat ad nauseum until the players “get it” and translate it to the field on game day. Lastly, if a coach isn’t able to properly install his scheme or get his players attuned to it, he either needs to adjust his scheme (i.e., maybe his approach is flawed?) or he needs to get new players who can learn and execute his system. That’s it. Pure and simple.

2) General Manager - Special teams isn’t typically on the field as often or as long on any given game day as the units on offense and defense. However, it’s no less important than either of them. There are three phases to the NFL game. You need to make sure you acquire the right players for all three of them if you plan on being successful, because, on any given Sunday, no matter how well you’ve stocked your offense and defense, either of those units could have a letdown. But, as long as you’ve prepared a decent to good special teams unit, they can still help you win the ball game by providing superior field position, forcing turnovers, and yes…even scoring points. They’re equal parts offense and defense all to the themselves, only condensed down into a single play opportunity. So, you need players who can make the most of that brief appearance on the field. Simply put, you need playmakers. It’s the general manager’s responsibility (as guided by his coaches) to make sure he addresses that need. And, I’d daresay, Marty Hurney hasn’t really done a very good job of that. Instead, he’s seemingly drafted more for depth (on the offense and defense) than potential, perrennial special teams aces like we’ve had in the past (see Bates and Hankton). Maybe that was under Fox’s direction? I don’t know. Regardless, we’ve had a lot of misfires on guys we thought might be our punt returners or kick returners. We used to have a clutch kicker…albeit, one who lost the leg strength to reach the endzone on kickoffs. So, we had to spend another roster postion just to acquire a kickoff specialist. Together, it worked pretty decently, but it came at the expense of the rest of team (i.e., we couldn’t carry an extra DB, LB, WR, O-lineman or D-lineman for depth). And even during that stint, we consistently lacked good tacklers and gunners on special teams. So, any way you slice it, the GM and coaching staff hasn’t made the proper player acquisition a priority on special teams like they have on offense and defense…in my opinion.

3) Players - I actually put a lot more of the blame on the players than just 33%. They’re the ones on the field. They’re the actual professionals attempting to make a career out of football. And they’re the ones that have to execute. So, once they hit the field, the poor performance is ultimately on them. Unfortunately, in this “me first” generation, I think we’ve got more players on special teams that are interested in cracking the starting lineup than they are at being ace special teamers. There really doesn’t seem to be a source of pride in special teams play among these guys…or, at least, it’s not apparent in how they fail to show up on Sundays. You look at a team like Chicago and how much superior special teams play means to them and you wonder why we can’t develop something like that. It’s easy to say they’re successful purely for Devin Hester. But, even when he spends the majority of his time on offense and they put someone else (e.g., Johnny Knox, etc.) back to receive kicks, they still excel. And that’s because, to a man, everyone on that unit wants to be the best. And they block the same and execute the same whether Hester is back there or not…and that’s why the other returners have the same level of success. Our approach, however, has seemingly depended more on finding the “right” return man as if that’s going to spark improved special teams play all on its own. And it won’t. Armanti Edwards, Kealoha Pilares, even Brandon Hogan might be all-world at the KR/PR position. But with the lousy blocking upfront and the penalties for illegal blocks in the back and unnecessary stupidity, we’ll never know.

4) Tackling - Boy are we bad at tackling. I’ve never seen so many bad angles, whiffs, attempted arm tackles, complete fakeouts, and attempts to shoulder into someone rather than wrap them up. It’s not just a problem on special teams. It shows up on the defense a lot, too. Our guys have real problems shedding blocks, both on the D-line and when they get held up in the return game. It kills the ability to fill the gap and cut off run back lanes for the return man (and opposing RBs). And, even when we get a guy in position to make a play (or 4 or 5 in at least one case), all it takes is one missed tackle and the returner is gone. That’s because guys are still focused on engaging an opposing blocker rather than swarming to the ball. Everyone is counting on someone else to make the play rather than all of them moving in to do so. And when they get there, they fail to wrap up so often it infuriates me sometimes while watching them. That’s a fundamental aspect of football on defense and coverage teams. If you can’t get that right, you’re failing at 90% of your job.

5) Blocking - We do a really bad job here, too. When we’re trying to return a punt or kickoff, it’s like all of our blockers can’t find anyone to lock up. There’s usually 3 or 4 guys on the opposing coverage team running free, filling lanes, and swarming to our return man. It’s like no one wants to go out there and put a hat on a hat or de-cleat anyone anymore. And they get fought off really easily or outmaneuvered so they completely lose leverage when trying to hold up someone. Simply put, they look lost. They’re very undisciplined. They may even be undersized in some areas as compared to who they’re taking on. And someone needs to set the bar higher than that. They need to find guys who are capable of playing at a higher level.

6) Focus - This is a big one for me. Part of the reason Mike Goodson isn’t returning kicks anymore is because he just loses focus. We’ve seen fumbles. We’ve seen muffs that bounce right off a guy’s chest and roll forward out of the endzone for 10 yards before he can run and pick it up. We lose patience and commit stupid penalties that negate good runbacks. Guys are just going through the motions. And every week they try to pump up the crowd before a kickoff, then fail to execute because they’re just not dialed in properly on how to execute their assignments. That happened on the first play against the Vikings last week. I remember watching the game and seeing the kickoff team waving their arms to pump up the crowd (or maybe just acknowledging their excitement) and thinking to myself, “You guys better deliver on all that energy you’re using to pump up the crowd, because if you give up another big return, you’re going to suck all the life out of that stadium.” And what did we do? Bam. A 73-yard return. Way to set the tone for the game, special teams. The defense came in to bail you out by holding them to a missed FG. Otherwise, it would have been even worse.

So, unfortunately, I grade the special teams a major “F” for this season…and that’s across the board…the players, the coaches, and even the GM for not performing any of their individual roles adequately enough to enable this team to benefit from the special teams play. Our best friends on coverage right now are the automatic touchback and the fair catch. And our best plays in the return game are taking a knee in the endzone or anything that ensures we secure the ball and give Cam another possession rather than turning it over. We can’t consistently count on them to score or even give us good field position. We only hope they don’t screw up badly enough that they cost us the game. And, unfortunately, on at least a couple occasions this year (Arizona? Chicago? Maybe even Minnesota?), they’ve done exactly that.

So, we need upgrades. We need playmakers. And we need coaches and a GM that can recognize them, specifically for special teams. Otherwise, we’re always going to have an Achilles heel no mater how much effort Cam, Smitty, Shockey/Olsen, and Deangelo/Stewart put forth on offense for us. Or even how much more our play on defense might improve if we didn’t have so many injuries.

But that’s just my two cents,
—Neil