Why bring the ball out of the end zone on KOR

Yep. Somebody had it as their signature here.

 

Who is KR?
Is it going to be Jackson? I knew he would be PR at least.

 

It was going to be Jackson. But since Weems is back, I would imagine he is taking that over. He took every one in preseason except for 1 or 2.

 

I don't think Weems is much of a threat to take one to the house so I would tend to agree it's probably just better to take the knee and the easy 25 yards. Especially because, like mentioned above, a lot of kickers are putting more hang time on their kicks and with guys having low football IQ, being dumb enough to run it out for 13 yards. I wouldn't mind Jackson running it out from 2-3 yards but Weems is a different story

 

As pointed out by someone, you dont get credit for a 25 yard return for taking a knee..

But I agree, more guys should take the free yards and not pin their teams back an extra 10-15 yards like last night. D. Thomas was making all kinds of mistakes last night, not only on kick returns...

 

Guys whose entire careers as specialists are going to take it out... if not, they would lose their job.

But, I predicted the end of KR Specialists in an older thread.

 

If Weems is our KR, plz take the 25 yards every time

 

As a coach, unless I had a dynamic returner, I'd tell them to take a knee if possible.

That being said, it is true that kickers now try not to boot it in the endzone to force a return and hopefully stop a guy before the 25.

 

That'd be a fallacy, averaging 1 yard returns at the 26 would net better field position, There's a reason touchbacks aren't calculated into return yards for averages.

 

I don't care who my return guy is, if they kick it in the end zone they better take a knee. The odds of not getting the ball to the 25 and/or having a penalty are far, far higher than having a big return.

I'd love to see what the actual statistics are for average starting field position of balls that can be kneeled but are taken out versus just kneeling it. I'd bet it's a pretty substantial difference in field position, and wouldn't be surprised if it's less than the 20. (You can't look at a guys average return yards because those take the end zone into account, so a guy who averages 25 yards/return could be taking it from 5 yards deep every time and only getting it to the 20)

Most important to me is the chance of a penalty. You can't get a block in the back or a hold when you take a knee. Penalties on kick offs are almost exclusively on the return team, and they happen quite a bit. So even if you do happen to get a big return, there's still a good chance it will come back.

Long story short, it's just not worth the risk.