Boyd returning punts?

[fredtoast]

Hobson comment fron first padded practice

"Alex Erickson, Phillips and Boyd were in the rotation for punt return"

Boyd was an active return man in college with 47 KR and 26 PR. He had one PR for a td.

I know everyone is always concerned with a star player getting injured on special teams, but it seems to me that while there are a lot of injuries on KR and PR it is usually the gunners or the blockers getting hurt instead of the actual return men. Anyone ever seen any numbers on this?

[HarleyDog]

He's on the depth chart as a PR as well? Interesting. So I guess Wilson only returns KO's?

https://www.espn.com/nfl/team/depth/_/name/cin

[Geno_Can_Dunk]

Probably just for depth, but i've never understood why they don't put Gio back there. He was a good punt returner in college too.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

We got a lot of good returners, just saying.

[Truck_1_0_1_]

Boyd's returned punts in TC since 2016.

[Jhowdy54]

Alex Erickson just needs cut this year in my book. He's not sure handed at all as a return man on punts. Even when he collects the punt cleanly he might give you maybe 5 yards. Not good. Kinda reminds me of Keiwan Ratliff return days. Erickson is averaging a fumble every 21 touches in his career. That simply can't happen. With the receiver depth the way it is its time to say bye.

[Sled21]

(08-18-2020, 08:27 AM)Jhowdy54 Wrote: Alex Erickson just needs cut this year in my book.   He's not sure handed at all as a return man on punts.  Even when he collects the punt cleanly he might give you maybe 5 yards.  Not good.  Kinda reminds me of Keiwan Ratliff return days.  Erickson is averaging a fumble every 21 touches in his career.  That simply can't happen.  With the receiver depth the way it is its time to say bye.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2019/returns.htm

NFL Rankings for returners. Alex Erickson
2019-17th (Big turnover in Special Teams)
2018-2nd
2017-2nd
2016-1st

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(08-18-2020, 09:15 AM)Sled21 Wrote: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2019/returns.htm

NFL Rankings for returners. Alex Erickson
2019-17th (Big turnover in Special Teams)
2018-2nd
2017-2nd
2016-1st

Trippy

[Jhowdy54]

(08-18-2020, 09:15 AM)Sled21 Wrote: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2019/returns.htm

NFL Rankings for returners. Alex Erickson
2019-17th (Big turnover in Special Teams)
2018-2nd
2017-2nd
2016-1st

Alex Erickson has 14 fumbles in his 4 year career. 1 fumble every 21 touches.  You might not notice it with maybe only 5 touches a game for him, but its there.  

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(08-18-2020, 03:17 PM)Jhowdy54 Wrote: Alex Erickson has 14 fumbles in his 4 year career. 1 fumble every 21 touches.  You might not notice it with maybe only 5 touches a game for him, but its there.  

Devin Hester had 20 fumbles as a returner in his first 4 years. 1 fumble every 10.7 returns.
Adam Jones had 12 fumbles as a returner in his first 4 years. 1 fumble every 13.8 returns.
Josh Cribbs had 10 fumbles as a returner in his first 4 years. 1 fumble every 27.4 returns.
Darren Sproles had 6 fumbles as a returner in his first 4 years. 1 fumble every 49.5 returns.

Now knowing that, how would you rank them in order of best to worst returner?


If you muff a punt but recover it quickly, it's still a fumble. If you get blasted near the sideline and the ball bounces out of bounds it's still a fumble. Returners take some serious punishment and take some serious hits considering on punts they're just standing there waiting for the ball while guys are getting a full head of steam to destroy them.

I am fine with Erickson being taken off KR because I don't think he provides enough threat there, but he's not hurting the team and he's hardly the point of most worry on it. I'd rather Erickson do a decent job there than Boyd potentially do a better job, but also be at risk when he's the only reliable starting quality WR the Bengals have.

[Sled21]

(08-18-2020, 03:17 PM)Jhowdy54 Wrote: Alex Erickson has 14 fumbles in his 4 year career. 1 fumble every 21 touches.  You might not notice it with maybe only 5 touches a game for him, but its there.  

I'm just posting his rankings from the website.

[fredtoast]

(08-18-2020, 03:17 PM)Jhowdy54 Wrote: Alex Erickson has 14 fumbles in his 4 year career. 1 fumble every 21 touches.  You might not notice it with maybe only 5 touches a game for him, but its there.  

You need to look at this number in context.

Last year there were 16 players with at least 20 punt returns.  They combined for 428 punt returns and had 31 fumbles.  That is one every 13.8 punt returns.  So just one out of 21 is not bad at all.  It could be better, but it is much better than the average for the top returners in the league.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(08-18-2020, 04:11 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Devin Hester had 20 fumbles as a returner in his first 4 years. 1 fumble every 10.7 returns.
Adam Jones had 12 fumbles as a returner in his first 4 years. 1 fumble every 13.8 returns.
Josh Cribbs had 10 fumbles as a returner in his first 4 years. 1 fumble every 27.4 returns.
Darren Sproles had 6 fumbles as a returner in his first 4 years. 1 fumble every 49.5 returns.

Now knowing that, how would you rank them in order of best to worst returner?


If you muff a punt but recover it quickly, it's still a fumble. If you get blasted near the sideline and the ball bounces out of bounds it's still a fumble. Returners take some serious punishment and take some serious hits considering on punts they're just standing there waiting for the ball while guys are getting a full head of steam to destroy them.

I am fine with Erickson being taken off KR because I don't think he provides enough threat there, but he's not hurting the team and he's hardly the point of most worry on it. I'd rather Erickson do a decent job there than Boyd potentially do a better job, but also be at risk when he's the only reliable starting quality WR the Bengals have.

Nice post TLL, thanks for the context.

[Clark W Griswold]

I don’t like the idea Boyd returning punts.
They would be better off with someone else being the 3rd PR option. Just tell him to be sure and fair catch it if he ever has to go out there. They have enough trouble keeping their top WRs healthy without putting one out there on special teams.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(08-18-2020, 07:03 PM)Clark W Griswold Wrote: I don’t like the idea Boyd returning punts.
They would be better off with someone else being the 3rd PR option. Just tell him to be sure and fair catch it if he ever has to go out there.  They have enough trouble keeping their top WRs healthy without putting one out there on special teams.

My thoughts as well, the Punt Returner job can be risky and Boyd is our one really good WR that has been able to stay healthy.

Let Erickson do the job, he had a bad year last season but that doesn't mean he cannot be a good Returner as the numbers show.

[BengalChris]

(08-18-2020, 04:11 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Devin Hester had 20 fumbles as a returner in his first 4 years. 1 fumble every 10.7 returns.
Adam Jones had 12 fumbles as a returner in his first 4 years. 1 fumble every 13.8 returns.
Josh Cribbs had 10 fumbles as a returner in his first 4 years. 1 fumble every 27.4 returns.
Darren Sproles had 6 fumbles as a returner in his first 4 years. 1 fumble every 49.5 returns.

Now knowing that, how would you rank them in order of best to worst returner?


If you muff a punt but recover it quickly, it's still a fumble. If you get blasted near the sideline and the ball bounces out of bounds it's still a fumble. Returners take some serious punishment and take some serious hits considering on punts they're just standing there waiting for the ball while guys are getting a full head of steam to destroy them.

I am fine with Erickson being taken off KR because I don't think he provides enough threat there, but he's not hurting the team and he's hardly the point of most worry on it. I'd rather Erickson do a decent job there than Boyd potentially do a better job, but also be at risk when he's the only reliable starting quality WR the Bengals have.

I love it when Adam Jones returned punts. Fair catch just was not in his vocabulary.

BTW, Ross had a good season returning kicks in college. How about putting that speed to use? Oh ... wait. 


 

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(08-18-2020, 10:23 PM)BengalChris Wrote: I love it when Adam Jones returned punts. Fair catch just was not in his vocabulary.

BTW, Ross had a good season returning kicks in college. How about putting that speed to use? Oh ... wait. 


 

Honestly not against it this season. It will probably be Ross's last season here anyways might as well reap what we can.

[impactplaya]

We need a PR that can flip.the field and can put some
Sizzle and spark in the return game

[EatonFan]

Erickson has had some great PR. I think it was Seattle late in the game that he returned one about 50 yards setting up the winning score.

[Sled21]

A lot of Erickson's struggles last year were not his fault, there was huge turnover on special teams and his blocks were not there.