Quote:
Originally Posted by -King-
He has a 9.7 yards per return average on punt returns in his career. Pretty good. Would be top 10 most years.
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He had that rookie year where he was really good and then in his 2nd year he started looking pretty rough. I think I'm just putting some disproportionate weight on the 2nd year in my recollection. And in that brief period his 4th season he was REAL bad.
The 48 yarder, if my memory serves, came off something of a gadget play where he took the return as something of an 'up back' and the defense didn't see it coming. He just kinda ran straight ahead and there was nobody there.
He's a fine fallback and if put in the role would probably be sufficient. But I do wonder if the mere threat of Hill wouldn't get you even more. Like if Hill were instructed to fair catch anything questionable and otherwise just run to the sideline and out of bounds to avoid a hit. How long would it take STs coordinators to stop pooch punting to him and ceding a 38 yard net just to avoid giving him a chance to return?
I'd really like to get Hardman back there because of his relatively trivial importance to the offense and his ability to break one. But if he can't be trusted to field the ball cleanly I do think there's an open question as to whether or not DAT would be enough of a weapon to justify him over a super cautious approach with Hill.