Not today, no. My knees are garbage and I don't have confidence I could get under it, especially if it was directional (like the one Skyy fumbled on). Since I didn't have the confidence, I'd press and be in my head about it so increasing the chances I'd fuck it up.
Plus, since I'm getting older, I can feel my reaction times slowing on shit I don't do anymore. My fucking son thinks it's funny as hell to chuck shit as hard as he can at my knees, off to the side, or some other place that is off target. And more and more I'm not catching that shit anymore. That would knock off my success rate even more. And that would be in my head too, also fucking up mental state.
Fuck, getting old sucks ass.
However, a decade ago, Yep, I'd have a high confidence rate, especially after some practice reps. 15 years ago, hell yeah, and I think I probably could have fielded a couple and run out of bounds before I got hit. 20 years ago at 19, I'd think my dumbass was Dante Hall, get hit, get fucking destroyed, probably dead, and most surely fumble the football.
So there is a decade or so where you could count on me to reliably field a punt. [Reply]
I'm confident enough in my ability to field punts to say this. There's 2 people on this earth that should never be trusted enough to field punts for the Chiefs, me and Skyy Moore. [Reply]
I could do it better than Skyy Moore by just getting the fuck out of the way and letting the ball bounce wherever.
If I had to actually fair catch them...maybe? NFL punters kick a hell of a lot different than anything I'm used to from my youth. A lot more hang time and crazy rotation. I know returners always had a tough time catching Dustin Colquitt punts. Especially with wind and weather conditions.
There's a fair chance I could catch a regular punt in regular conditions. But who am I to say I'd 100% catch it when even the best returners muff them on occasion. Even Tyreek fucked up a couple and he's one of the best overall athletes I've ever seen. [Reply]
To be honest I was scared shitless back in high school when I was on kickoff team, I wasn't returner but up man, if the kickoff came my way it was just fall on the bitch. Being a punt returner nah fuck that shit lol. Returner is just different shit man.
Disclaimer I was a decent high school football player. I had really good scholarship offers to almost every D2 and NAIA school in the state to play WR. I just didn't want to play college football. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Superturtle: :-) it's like the whole board has been coached by Toub. You do realize you don't actually have to RETURN the kick, right?
100% this. I would be waving for fair catch before the ball is off the punters foot. [Reply]
An NFL punt returner has to choose between four options on every punt: 1) return it, 2) fair catch, 3) avoid fielding it because it will be a touchback, or 4) avoid fielding it because it is too risky.
In the real NFL, those stats break down as follows: 1) return it 43%, 2) fair catch 26%, 3) touchbacks 6%, 4) downed 13%. Then there are 12% of punts that go out of bounds that we can assume the returner has no role in.
In this thread, we are eliminating the possibility of being (legally) hit and are simplifying the role to three decisions: fair catch, allow it to (hopefully) go for a touchback, and avoid fielding because it is too risky.
For simplicity, we will assume the number of out of bounds kicks remains unchanged at 12%. In order to be successful in our scenario, you must successfully fair catch at least 69% of all punts and in addition have at least 6% touchbacks. If you have more than 13% of your punts un-fielded and downed, you fail. Any fumble over the course of the season is also a fail. Assume a total of 64 total punts you have to process and you need to field 69% of them (45 out of 64) without a single bad decision or muffed punt.
None of us is going to get to a lot of these punts with sufficient time to square up on them and field them, for lack of speed and experience. For those punts you can't quite get into ideal position, you can either chose to let it bounce (that's failure) or increase risk of a muff. People have already alluded to the fact that an NFL punt is going to come down hard, fast, windblown, at weird angels, and possibly with a bit of English. This isn't a sandlot or high school punt. Excuses related to being lost in the lights, sunlight, or weird NFL dome shadows, are not valid.
And you will eventually be hit by a defender at NFL speed. Happens all the time where a returner throws up a fair catch sign, but the defender doesn't see it and lights up the returner. Let that marinate in your mind while your eyes are trying to pick the football out from the lights.
Even in this simplified scenario where you eliminate a major decision (do I return it?) and you (usually) don't get hit, there isn't one of us able to cleanly field punts to NFL standards. [Reply]
