I hate preseason football!!!!

[Screamin12th]

Also as far as Preseason goes look at poor Sam Bradford, This poor kid can not catch a break. He is a very talented QB that could if healthy lead that team to a winning record and possibly a playoff birth. Now the rumor is his injury is worse than they first thought.

I feel sorry for the Rams fans And Sam Bradford. Those Rams i feel wont be long in St.L. That is one snake bit club.

 

[FirebreathingMonkey]

Also as far as Preseason goes look at poor Sam Bradford, This poor kid can not catch a break. He is a very talented QB that could if healthy lead that team to a winning record and possibly a playoff birth. Now the rumor is his injury is worse than they first thought.

I feel sorry for the Rams fans And Sam Bradford. Those Rams i feel wont be long in St.L. That is one snake bit club.

Torn ACL, out for the year. Man those who hoped the rams might be the dark horse in the division,seems like that idea over.

Sam Bradford of St. Louis Rams out for season with torn ACL - ESPN

 

[Cloud]

Holy shit Sam Bradford is done for the year. Damn!!!

 

[mick7-1961]

Holy shit Sam Bradford is done for the year. Damn!!!

Same ACL, same knee as last year when he mossed 9 games.... Sad

 

[Cloud]

Same ACL, same knee as last year when he mossed 9 games.... Sad

Terrible. Feel so bad for him.

 

[tzorn10]

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

Understood, but Thomas should have no say in the matter either. What does him insisting mean? Isnt Pete the decision maker here? If Thomas had Deon Sanders skills back there when he touched the ball then I could understand, but he seems below average at returning so far to me. Hopefully it will work out with no injuries regardless of what they do.

 

[Sharkonabicycle]

Is there any stats to back this up?

Eh Sonny, I'm probably talking out my ass, but at the time it seemed like a good thing to type lol...

Regardless, if anyone can find some stats on NFL injuries and whether punt/kick returns really are more dangerous it'd be great.

 

[SonnyCID]

Its been too small of a sample size to judge, so I don't get the comments about him being average at best. He's deadly in the open field whenever I have seen him with the ball, he has great vision, great speed, and he's smart. I think he's going to be one of the better returners in the league just based off of his physical ability.

 

[HaroldSeattle]

Understood, but Thomas should have no say in the matter either. What does him insisting mean? Isnt Pete the decision maker here? If Thomas had Deon Sanders skills back there when he touched the ball then I could understand, but he seems below average at returning so far to me. Hopefully it will work out with no injuries regardless of what they do.

Hey Pete want ST to be special, that why a lot of starters play on STS. As for Thomas, give it some time, I think he'll be damn good at it.

 

[dude82]

I understand most of the reasons why some people are against using Thomas as the punt returner. He's the most important player we have on defense and he just got a huge contract extension, making him very valuable to the team financially as well. I get all that.

But if we're going to use those truths as arguments against making him the punt returner, then we should be using them as arguments against having him on the special teams unit at all. If he's so valuable to the team in his role as the starting free safety/QB of the defense that the mere idea of risking his health to return punts makes people angry, then he should be off the special teams unit completely. Right?

I guess what I'm getting at is this: What's the argument for keeping him on the special teams unit itself, but keeping him from returning punts? And no, you can't say he's mediocre or bad at returning punts based solely on the limited number of opportunities he's had to do it this preseason.

So what is it? Is it fear of overuse? If that's it, he shouldn't be on special teams at all. He should only play safety. At his age and with his overall lack of injury problems so far, I'm not overly concerned with that. If special teams didn't exist and teams had to go for it on 4th down all the time, he'd be out there, so what difference does it make having him out there returning punts vs. playing safety on would-be 4th downs?

Is it fear of him taking more big hits than necessary, increasing the opportunity for him to get hurt? If that's it, then Percy Harvin shouldn't be returning kicks. Harvin, despite his reputation for being made of glass being overblown, has more injury history than Thomas does and is slated to make more money than Thomas is for the foreseeable future, and not by just a little bit more either. Wouldn't Harvin's perceived higher susceptibility to injury and higher average yearly salary make him a worse candidate to be a returner of any sort than Thomas?

Now, we haven't seen enough of Thomas returning punts to know whether or not he'll be good enough at it to make taking the risk worthwhile, and I suppose that's the main difference between him and Harvin (In college and NFL regular seasons combined, Earl has returned 4 punts, all with Texas, for an average of 14.5 yards per return, while Harvin has been returning kicks in the NFL for years), but how are we gonna know if he doesn't get the opportunity? If he proves not to be very good at it, then they should replace him. They shouldn't replace him out of fear that he's going to get hurt or overused if they think he's going to be good at it.

 

[blstoker]

Actually, I don't think that Harvin should be returning kicks either, even without the injury history. This team is built on athletic players, and there may not be one who is as good at KoR as Harvin, but there are several who should be able to do the job. Ricardo Lockette just seems to be a guy who should be able to return kicks, it's really not that hard.

The main thing I think PC looks for with someone on kick returns of any kind is aggression, well other than just straight ability. Tate was super aggressive back there, and Thomas has that same aggressiveness in his play style. PC wants guys to take balls that most would either let go or at least fair catch.

 

[dude82]

Actually, I don't think that Harvin should be returning kicks either, even without the injury history. This team is built on athletic players, and there may not be one who is as good at KoR as Harvin, but there are several who should be able to do the job. Ricardo Lockette just seems to be a guy who should be able to return kicks, it's really not that hard.

The main thing I think PC looks for with someone on kick returns of any kind is aggression, well other than just straight ability. Tate was super aggressive back there, and Thomas has that same aggressiveness in his play style. PC wants guys to take balls that most would either let go or at least fair catch.

There are exceptions, of course, but it just seems like there are far fewer objections to Harvin returning kicks this year than when we traded for him and there are definitely far fewer objections to it than when he was getting ready to come back last year and the subject of him returning kicks came up. I didn't really notice a big change in the number of objections to it until we knew that we were going to have him for the Super Bowl.

As far as there being other guys (i.e., cheaper/more expendable guys) on the team capable of returning both kicks and punts... of course there are. There are probably a handful of guys on every team who are capable of returning kicks and punts, but that isn't really the point. Kickoffs and punts, whether you're covering them or receiving them, help set the tone for the next series and sometimes can result in points by themselves. We don't know what kind of returner Thomas is gonna be yet, but with Harvin returning kicks, there's a chance he could score on every return. There might be other guys on the team who can return kicks, but I doubt any of them have going for them what Harvin has going for him. Thomas has the athleticism to be good at returning punts for good yardage, but we need to see him do it more than a few times to see if he can be a game changer back there. If he can't, then get somebody else in there.

 

[Sharkonabicycle]

Actually, I don't think that Harvin should be returning kicks either, even without the injury history. This team is built on athletic players, and there may not be one who is as good at KoR as Harvin, but there are several who should be able to do the job. Ricardo Lockette just seems to be a guy who should be able to return kicks, it's really not that hard.

The main thing I think PC looks for with someone on kick returns of any kind is aggression, well other than just straight ability. Tate was super aggressive back there, and Thomas has that same aggressiveness in his play style. PC wants guys to take balls that most would either let go or at least fair catch.

This I disagree with. Thomas is far too valuable defensively to have returning punts and frankly after watching him this preseason, isn't that good to begin with. That said, might as well experiment... but if Carroll goes into the season with Thomas as PR, that's a fail. That all said..

Harvin is a beast in the kick return role. That's what he was born for. I totally understand that it sucks Harvin is injured so often, but you can't pay a guy $10M+ a year and take him out of a role which utilizes his God given talent.

If Seattle benched Harvin as a KR, it would go against everything they stand for (ridiculous athletes, playing at the very top of their position).

 

[blstoker]

This I disagree with. Thomas is far too valuable defensively to have returning punts and frankly after watching him this preseason, isn't that good to begin with. That said, might as well experiment... but if Carroll goes into the season with Thomas as PR, that's a fail. That all said..

Harvin is a beast in the kick return role. That's what he was born for. I totally understand that it sucks Harvin is injured so often, but you can't pay a guy $10M+ a year and take him out of a role which utilizes his God given talent.

If Seattle benched Harvin as a KR, it would go against everything they stand for (ridiculous athletes, playing at the very top of their position).

That $10 million is exactly why you don't put him back there. of the 19 guys who returned 20 kickoffs last year that are still playing this year, the average salary cap hit is $1,031,343.95. That would account for 7.7% of Harvin's. Man, the highest paid kick returner this season is Ted Ginn, Jr. at $2,250,000, still a far cry from Harvin's 13,400,000.

Excluding last year, Harvin has been used at least 100 times every year in his career (catches, returns and rushes) with a high of 155 in 2011. I would love to see him touch the ball that often, but I'd prefer to see him as a contributor on offense with occasional use as a KR than to see him as the return man on 30 returns.

I have never liked putting the starters on special teams, and since it hasn't hurt the team at all, I haven't really been vocal about it. It seems to be working, but the Hawks were lucky overall when it came to injuries, so I hope their luck doesn't change.

I won't be upset whatever player is used back there, cause so far those decisions seem to have worked for the teams advantage, and I have no control over it anyway.

 

[FirebreathingMonkey]

"The Seahawks through three weeks [ of the preseason] are first in total defense, second in rush yards and third in scoring"

Something to chew on ...(taken from article By Michael Grey, 710 ESPN Seattle)