DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Special teams?

Our special teams are not so special and have gotten gouged pretty badly at key, worst possible times.

Our new hire was an animal on STs. I cannot believe our coordinator has survived; I feel the unit is poor. What say you? Is its fine?

Any candidates we might consider if we upgrade? Any insight to how this is evaluated would be helpful .

Just as an aside, my third favorite Browns coach if all time is Brad Sealy.
#2 is Sam Rutigliano and of course #1 is Paul Brown.

I don't think we have to make a change. I think Tabor is fine.

I think we lost some good special team's players when Sashi took over. He kept a lot of his guys on the roster and we lost guys like Bademosi and some others who helped.

For example, Ricardo Louis was in position to make the tackle yesterday. The guy stepped right into his lane just after he caught the ball. Louis tried to wrap him up high and the guy just ran right through his arms. That is not the fault of the coach. It was a poor effort by Louis. Btw----hopefully we will part ways w/Louis now that Sashi is gone.

The fake punt was another example of us being in position. Spielman even talked about it. However, our defender whiffed on the tackle. I wasn't able to pick out his number, but we would have been in great shape if he just makes a tackle that he is paid to make.

I am not saying Tabor is great or anything. I just don't see what difference it would make if we fired him.

I think it is more about the players this year v last year. A good unit usually has 1-2 guys who remain in the league soley because of their ability to shine on that unit. I don't think we have those guys anymore. Tank Carder comes to mind

Another thing.........while I didn't like Peppers as one of our first round picks and always questioned his ability to cover, I did think he would shine as a returner. I thought he would have made several dynamic returns by now. He has been disappointing and very ordinary in this area. I think he even muffed two punts in one game.

The problem I have with special teams is I don't see any 'hungry' players out there. Who's that one guy that you KNOW will go hard to get the tackle EVERY TIME like his life depended on it.. ala Cribbs, heck, even Bademosi..

We have too many guys taking up roster spots who truly don't want to earn them. Cut the fat!

The problem I have with the special teams is Chris Tabor. Very weak! Mediocre!

I see, but I am not seeing enough there in my opinion. We have no Cribbs types. Name three standouts. This unit has collapsed when needed. Whether that is an individual, or scheme failure, or lack of fire, or all of those, the discussion is academic. And we are not "generating" some players for the roster that will be upgrades. Like we need to develop a few more "missed tackle" players. Some are playing well. Maybe he is OK.

Need to draft some crazy guys in late rounds who love to run and hit.
Guys who just want a job and will do anything to keep it. Special teams guys should be half insane to start with.

Going back to when he was in Green Bay, Dorsey and the rest of that staff always looked at players that would be good fits for playing special teams. Always seemed to find players in the 6'-3" 250ish lb size that could run and they ended up being the core of the special teams units.