While killing some time tonight at work, I went to ESPN to look at all the team stats, mainly Chief's defensive improvements. There are many. But the stat that really jumped out at me was the incredibly low amount of kickoff and punt returns for touchdowns league wide in 2019.
Before you look, try and guess how many TOTAL COMBINED TDs for both KO and Punt returns. :-) I think you'll be shocked.
Additionally, NO TEAM ONE TEAM so far in 2019 has BOTH a PUNT and KO return for a TD plus one team NOW has TWO in one category.
COMBINED TDS = 14 7 KICKOFFS
7 PUNT RETURNS
Kickoff returns for TD's (1 each) KANSAS CITY CHIEFS
Buffalo Bills
Chicago Bears
Cincinnati Bengals Detroit Lions
Miami Dolphins
Washington Redskins
Punt returns for TD's (2 each)
Indianapolis Colts
Punt returns for TD's (1 each)
Atlanta Falcons Detroit Lions
Los Angeles Chargers
New Orleans Saints
Pittsburgh Steelers
Punting can still be an exciting play..you can block the punt or the returner could fumble it and a great punt flips field position. Kickoffs are boring and pointless anymore [Reply]
The league/officials have totally killed the excitement of the return game. Even on a big return, it’s hard to get fired up in the moment because you have to scan your TV for the yellow flag notification. Kinda sucks. My 8 year old retuned the opening kick for a TD in his first flag football playoff game, so there’s that. [Reply]
At this point, I would be fine with starting at the 25 and getting rid of the kickoff unless it's an onsides attempt.
At this point it's just a commercial break [Reply]
Originally Posted by Sofa King:
Guess how many flags on these plays though?
14,798. Or a flag on about 98% of those plays.
This issue blows my mind. At this point isn't it better to just not take a penalty and fair catch the ball/very small return. Feels like it's a net loss at times for a game.
Edit: Just checked, we have 156 special teams penalty yards and 175 punt return yards. Now certainly some of those special teams penalty yards are from kick returns but still that's pretty incredible. [Reply]
Originally Posted by SupDock:
At this point, I would be fine with starting at the 25 and getting rid of the kickoff unless it's an onsides attempt.
At this point it's just a commercial break
It almost feels like the NFL moved the kickoff up 5 yards as a middle ground before they went to no kickoffs and just start at the 25.
Originally Posted by Why Not?:
The league/officials have totally killed the excitement of the return game. Even on a big return, it’s hard to get fired up in the moment because you have to scan your TV for the yellow flag notification. Kinda sucks. My 8 year old retuned the opening kick for a TD in his first flag football playoff game, so there’s that.
The players need to stop blocking in the back.
It's obvious and stupid every time it happens. [Reply]
Thompson seems to like contact. I know it was penalized, but he blew up a player on one of Kelce's long receptions recently and he puts his guy on the ground on this return. I hope we see more of him in the playoffs. Maybe more involved in the passing game, like we used to use Kimble Anders. [Reply]
