For many years the Giants special teams unit has been below average, sometimes significantly so to the point where it was costing the team games. With the exception of a few flashes, the Giants special teams hasn't been better than average really since Parcells was here.
And we all got mildly upset when Quinn was brought back, and that was before we found out about McGaughey's cancer treatments at the start of the season.
Now we all know about the amazing strides of Rosas, but the reality is the Giants got better pretty much everywhere across the board, with one exception (returns) which we can touch on later.
No need to talk about Rosas' numbers, we all know how amazing he was and Justin Tucker got his All Pro slot thanks to name recognition. Rosas was statistically better.
And I think based on the eye test for Riley Dixon, we saw he was better than Brad Wing. Well, it turns out the numbers show Dixon was damn good last year.
43.0 yards net per punt- 7th in NFL
31 punts inside the 20- tied for 5th in NFL
6.2 yards per return- 5th best in the NFL (with a nod to the coverage teams as well)
1 touchback- tied for 2nd best in the NFL (only the Colts' Rigoberto Sanchez had 0 on the season)
Punters are a key part of any team and helping the field position game and the defense. The Giants defense was bad last year, but it wasn't Dixon's fault. If the Giants can improve there, the specials can look even that much better (think Landeta hand in hand with the 1980s defenses).
So area needing massive improvements? The return game. Things looked better with Coleman there, but if the Giants can get a good return man back on punts and kickoffs, we could see an even bigger improvement for the Giants. Look at how weak they were last year
- 20.4 yards per kickoff return- 31st in NFL (only Jax was worse)
- 6.6 yards per return on punts- 26th in NFL
This is bottom of the league stuff. Getting more talent in the return game even to get the Giants to average in the NFL will be a huge uptick for them on specials.
Anyway, point being, going into 2019, who knew that the Giants special teams can be considered an area of strength, and bringing in the right return man, dare I say, could be one of the better units in the NFL. It's not far fetched.
I hope they bring back Coleman and Henderson for the
return game I think they can also have a few touches in the
offense as well .
I don't disagree, but the numbers at least show that the return coverage was good last year. You can credit that to Dixon. You can also credit that to Gettleman because with so much roster turnover, particularly in the depth area, forced new players into special teams and they did a good job.
The good news as I see it, if your weakness is in the actual return game, usually that's handled by a single personnel upgrade with the returner. And, if the defense is doing it's job, you would assume teams would be punting on their own side of the field, which allows for more returns/opportunities. There isn't much a return man can do when he's forced to fair catch a ball inside the 10. These things are all linked together.
Punter did ok, IMO. Not great, not bad.
Return game looked much, much better when Coleman was installed......he's got return ability no doubt.
Coverage teams appeared better too.........
He's going to routinely land in the top third of the league in most categories. That's not elite, but it isn't poor.
It would be nice to keep these rankings steady AND add some improvement in returns (even marginally). But could live with same.
How old is our long snapper?
He's going to routinely land in the top third of the league in most categories. That's not elite, but it isn't poor.
Fatman
Good point about Dixon. I know that I was worried a bit about some of his numbers being inflated by playing in Denver, but he was consistent. He's not going to boom them like Landeta did, but he would look to be an asset in complementary football, which is something the Giants haven't played in a long long time.
Quote:
most years has had very low deviations in his punts, meaning that the difference between his longest and shortest is small. some of that is a function of field position, but it is also a measure of consistency.
He's going to routinely land in the top third of the league in most categories. That's not elite, but it isn't poor.
Fatman
Good point about Dixon. I know that I was worried a bit about some of his numbers being inflated by playing in Denver, but he was consistent. He's not going to boom them like Landeta did, but he would look to be an asset in complementary football, which is something the Giants haven't played in a long long time.
Booming it is not always good anyway. You get a lot of big returns when the kicker out kicks the coverage
They clearly improved from an abomination in 2017 and early 2018 to merely bad to mediocre by the end of the 18 season. It’s as clear as day.
What isn’t clear is how good they will be in 2019. That’s the real test.
He does great work with punter and kickers? When has he done great work? He has had some great established veterans like Robbie Gould and Josh Brown. Rosas was one of the league's worst kickers last year. Fast forward a year when Quinn is replaced as the ST coach Rosas was the best kicker in the league this year. Wing's performance declined over his time with the Giants.