I hate preseason football!!!!

[uwdawgfan]

Was anyone else screaming for Percy to GET DOWN every time he caught the football or was it just me? Thomas returning punts was nice for preseason but enough already, can we just get to the fucking season before someone gets hurt!!!!!

 

[Screamin12th]

Thomas had 1 good return so far, i hope he is not the returner. I think he averaged 3 yards before he broke that long one and got tackled by the punter. He is to much of a wiggle type guy when you need a north/south type guy on punt returns. Plus the major point, we do not need him to get injured.

 

[Sharkonabicycle]

Harvin in preseason I'm fine with. You can't just play a guy every game like he's going to be injured... that doesn't make useful football. I want Percy to be healthy, but you have to let him go out there and be Percy. If he continues to get injured, the faster you get rid of him the better.

As for Thomas returning punts, that's about the dumbest thing I've seen in franchise history. You have THE BEST FS in the NFL that allows your defense to play the way it does, and you're letting him return punts, where historically many injuries happen and a GREAT vs. bleh punt returner is on average about a difference of 5 yards and a TD/fumble or so.

 

[HustleWilson]

Pretty sure Earl Thomas won the punt return job with that 59 yard return. It was his first chance to have plenty space to show what he could do and he almost scored a touchdown. Pete wouldn't be having him do this it he didn't love what Earl has shown throughout all the practices.

 

[Screamin12th]

Earl is a sub par punt returner, Walters is better. Walters made something out of Nothing. On Earls big return even a poor punt returner could have got that. Look at the space and opening there was. It wasn't because of his skill at returning punts. Like Brock says " he had about 20 yards of space when he caught that" that will not happen very often.

Earl Thomas 59-Yard Punt Return

 

[gohusk]

Was anyone else screaming for Percy to GET DOWN every time he caught the football or was it just me? Thomas returning punts was nice for preseason but enough already, can we just get to the fucking season before someone gets hurt!!!!!

He's a football player and he needs the game contact just like everybody else does to get ready for the season. If we were to put him in a bubble and then throw him into games that mean something he'd probably be getting his bell rung quite a bit because he wasn't ready for the contact.

 

[gohusk]

Pretty sure Earl Thomas won the punt return job with that 59 yard return. It was his first chance to have plenty space to show what he could do and he almost scored a touchdown. Pete wouldn't be having him do this it he didn't love what Earl has shown throughout all the practices.

There's a lot of punt returners that could have done the same thing. He's one of the best defensive players in the league and we don't need to be rolling the dice and hope that some guy doesn't blow off the fair catch call and lay him out. He's way too important for that. Harvin's important but he's one of the best returners in the league so it's worth the risk.

 

[gohusk]

Earl is a sub par punt returner, Walters is better. Walters made something out of Nothing. On Earls big return even a poor punt returner could have got that. Look at the space and opening there was. It wasn't because of his skill at returning punts. Like Brock says " he had about 20 yards of space when he caught that" that will not happen very often.

Earl Thomas 59-Yard Punt Return

It's mind boggling having him out there doing that. He's just not good at it. He's just marginally better than Turbin was when they had him on KO returns and Turbin was flippin awful at it.

 

[SonnyCID]

Harvin in preseason I'm fine with. You can't just play a guy every game like he's going to be injured... that doesn't make useful football. I want Percy to be healthy, but you have to let him go out there and be Percy. If he continues to get injured, the faster you get rid of him the better.

As for Thomas returning punts, that's about the dumbest thing I've seen in franchise history. You have THE BEST FS in the NFL that allows your defense to play the way it does, and you're letting him return punts, where historically many injuries happen and a GREAT vs. bleh punt returner is on average about a difference of 5 yards and a TD/fumble or so.

Is there any stats to back this up?

 

[SonnyCID]

Ed Reed had a pretty good career and was his team's primary punt returner. Same with Deion.

Thomas, and many good players for that matter have been mainstays on STs since Pete got here. This is no different. Best player plays.

 

[SonnyCID]

It's mind boggling having him out there doing that. He's just not good at it. He's just marginally better than Turbin was when they had him on KO returns and Turbin was flippin awful at it.

Oh, come on. That's ridiculous. Turbin was awful.

 

[gohusk]

Oh, come on. That's ridiculous. Turbin was awful.

Ok, that was a little bit of hyperbole. The point is that Thomas needs to be a hell of a lot better at returning punts to risk an injury while doing it. He's average at best.

 

[SonnyCID]

Ok, that was a little bit of hyperbole. The point is that Thomas needs to be a hell of a lot better at returning punts to risk an injury while doing it. He's average at best.

I trust that if he's average hope: that's not true), that means the other guys are just bad.

 

[gohusk]

I trust that if he's average hope: that's not true), that means the other guys are just bad.

They can just pick someone up to do it. Just get a hands guy who isn't going to turn it over and can get a little something when the punt is returnable. Why risk it when he's nothing special as a returner? It doesn't make sense.

 

[Center Ice]

Preseason is not real football!

 

[HaroldSeattle]

I don't mind preseason, gives you a peak at the young guys that may not get much time in the regular season.
As for Thomas, he really wants to do this and Pete is willing to go along. I think he'll be good at it, also I think the injury risk are not as high as some of feel they are, at least that what I tell myself.

 

[tzorn10]

Thomas returning punts is just an UNNEEDED risk. We NEED him at safety, not shagging punts. This is one of those times where I think Pete's getting a little to cute and I will never understand the decision.

 

[HaroldSeattle]

Thomas returning punts is just an UNNEEDED risk. We NEED him at safety, not shagging punts. This is one of those times where I think Pete's getting a little to cute and I will never understand the decision.

We got no say in the matter. I really think it's Thomas insisting, because why else? Right?

 

[dude82]

Ed Reed had a pretty good career and was his team's primary punt returner. Same with Deion.

Thomas, and many good players for that matter have been mainstays on STs since Pete got here. This is no different. Best player plays.

I feel like this point is getting lost in all the anger over using Thomas to return punts. We use starters from both sides of the ball on special teams and this is the first time in a while that I can remember anybody worrying about any of them getting hurt. Is he susceptible to bigger hits being the return guy? Sure, but he's not necessarily more susceptible to more hits or to injury as the returner than he was when he was just on the return unit in another capacity.

Besides, as you pointed out, he's not exactly the first high profile, highly valuable starter to go back and return punts. My only concern about him doing it would be whether or not he's really the best guy for the job. It's kinda hard to determine that after three preseason games, but we'll see what happens. I think with our defense being as good as it is, we're going to get good field position quite often anyway, so he doesn't necessarily need to be Devin Hester back there.

 

[Screamin12th]

also lets say Thomas return a punt for a TD YAY great.... Now he has to go cover on the kickoff and then go in on defense after all ready spending how ever long on defense before the punt. One thing that can and often does cause injury is being TIRED.

Earls skill as a Punt returner is not good enough to risk him. If he was a top 5 then sure i totally understand it but what little we have seen is that he will average around 3 YPC ( his YPC before he finally had a 20 yard cushion to return one ). Getting a 15-20 yard cushion to return punts is maybe a 2 or 3 time thing PER season, it's very uncommon. Most of the time it will be 5 yards or less for a cushion.

The real problem i believe is this. Norwood and Robinson are locks to make the team, that means i would guess Baldwin, Harvin, Kearse, Lockette, Norwood and Robinson as our WR ( 6 ) This does not leave them room to carry another WR like Walters who is a better returner. Lockette is a lock because of his OUTSTANDING special teams play. He is one of if not THE best gunner in the NFL. That is not even including the fact that Robinson, Harvin and Lockette are hands down the fastest players on the offense.

You know who i would like to see get some return chances is Lane. He is the Fastest Seahawk on Defense and is more expendable than Thomas. He may not be good at it but i would say let him try. He can't be much worse than Thomas and he doesn't hurt the Hawks as much if he gets injured like losing Thomas would. Thomas makes everything work in our Defense with the way he plays, losing him could turn a top 5 Defense into a middle of the road one.