DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Special teams

Elephant in the room, my 9-7 prediction hinges on special teams. I like adding Josh Cribbs on the staff, not sure I have faith in our special teams coach.

I have some faith in Zane

Cribbs is a coaching intern. I am not sure how long he'll be with the team.

Should add Bernie as an intern.

Not sure I trust Brit just yet, has to stick the corner punt

one positive: Jeff janis is a special teams stud

Interesting prediction and qualifier that ST is vital. What do the ST need to deliver for that to happen? ST has given a few away with late run backs and blown snaps come to mind.

Where do you feel we might be best on ST? I like Cribbs here. I will miss Carder, who is gone I think.

Listening to a little of the ST coach presser - Peppers may be the return the guy. We drafted someone so high and the best feature they can provide is the return game it seems because Gregg talked high on Kindred...

Like Dawgs said above, Janis should be in the mix and I can't believe, what little I listened, that Amos (sp?) didn't mention him.

We'll see, I don't think our season hinges on ST though. Many more areas where if they succeed, we have a better chance to succeed in an overall manner.

Don't count out Evan Berry as a returner.

Our ST Coach Amis Jones in his presser said that there would be multiple KO returners on the KO.

He named three players ...

Peppers, Callaway (who returned punts in College), And Berry.

The first two are a pretty sure bet to make the team.

Keeping a player like Even Berry over perhaps a better WR at the end of the roster is a very likely scenario imo.

Berry was an outstanding KO returner @ Tennessee.

I don’t know, I feel like the past couple years, have been the worst special teams ever. Like in the history of our organization. Penalties, missed field goals, no return game, punting seems to be ok.

Agreed. I was very happy that Tabor departed, but the guy we're replacing him with doesn't impress me much.

We'll have to see I guess.

I was hoping Callaway would be the returner for punts and kickoffs. I also would consider trying Duke out as a returner

I think we have to get behind Zane, mainly because someone has to.

We probably won’t have another Phil for quite sometime, we have to get behind someone.

If they didn't dump him in the midst of his struggles last year, I think that he has a solid chance of remaining on the team.

However, if he does struggle, then we, potentially, have another option. He did miss several very makable, and important, FGs last year, and cost us a game against the Jets by missing 2 FGs.

I think Zane showed a little promise, though he also struggled obviously.

He'll get a shot again; let's hope he's improved and more confident

Seems all rookie kickers miss some kicks.

There isn't much transition from college to the pros when it comes to kickers.

Zane is a good kicker. He will be just fine.

Zane was a top ten kicker in extra point percentage, missing only one PAT. He does a great job on kickoffs, and he made 8 or his last 9 field goal attempts last year. I say he had a really good year as a rookie, and should only get better with experience. Hell Phil Dawson went 8 for 12 his rookie season.

We’ll find out all we need to know about Zane this year ....

Were his woes simply rookie jitters or is it who he is ...

GOOD LUCK ZANE!!!!! ....

Hope Tabor took it with him. An edge in ST play can help with game plan decisions when they can be counted on.

Can Duke return punts? I thought this was one of the big reasons we chose Peppers. hasn't been a strong area IMO across 1-31. I am fond of pointing out: "We have outrageous amount of upside!"

Unfortunately. Go, Browns!

Negative, college to nfl kickers are night and day. See penn state top 10 college team, and forgoe every field goal attempt.

Nugent and Dawson spoiled Ohio football fans with their accuracy. College kickers pale in comparison to the nfl game.

Yeah, I forgot Tabor is gone too. It might be a good thing; IMO we had been regressing on STs for a few seasons.

We had been pretty good, but not recently

PK Matt Stover

1991 Browns: 16 for 22

PK Zane Gozalez

2017 Browns: 15 for 20.

Give the kid a break.

yeah i think the patience will continue to happen ... remember that Hue even kept that guy who literally lost the Miami game by himself

Gonzalez will win many more games for us than he will lose ... JMHO

I miss solid long snappers which fans just take for granted as automatic. Unless they mess up. They can take the game down with them. Just remembering (I think) it was Pointbriand
(sp?), as in that grand old tag:"Fear us, for we have P. . . .."

College to NFL, but the snaps seem like more pressure for higher stakes. When he went sour it cost us a few.

I ALWAYS root for our LS!

I disagree. I always thought Tabor was a very good ST coach. No doubt our ST struggled during this most recent rebuild. In my opinion, when you purge most of the roster and start over, ST teams is bound to take a hit**. I think when the Browns began to accumulate depth, it resulted in above average special teams in any regime overall. But we always change regimes, so, it's tough to have consistency in players and direction.

I also view special teams like a bullpen in MLB. There is so much variance in production from year-to-year. So much change because of skill, $$, circumstance.

** Also why I didn't want Hue fired, just for those certain posters that like to manufacture the opinions of others.

Yeah, a couple bad snaps and it got into his head. We moved on to someone else soon after.

He's gotta be one of the few Drafted Long Snappers ever. 5th rounder, right?

Browns’ special teams coordinator Amos Jones talks return candidates at the conclusion of minicamp

Also, some news on how Joshua Cribbs has been doing as a coaching intern.

https://www.dawgsbynature.com/2018/6/17/...ion-of-minicamp

Excited About Kickoff Changes

We all know the rules to kickoffs were amended a bit this season. First off, they were glad that the NFL kept kickoffs. He thinks the play has evolved to more of an “open grass play” now, which is exciting for them.

Return Candidates for Browns

The two main players who Jones talked about as big play threats were SS Jabrill Peppers and WR Antonio Callaway. Veterans have also volunteered to try to get in on the action. Jones also pointed out WR Evan Berry as “a young kickoff return guy who is trying to turn into a punt returner.”


Here is how Jones described Callaway’s skillset as a returner:

“Sticking his foot into the ground and running vertical. The things you saw him do at the University of Florida, which was catch the ball, extremely comfortable with getting underneath of the ball and catching it and being able to stick a foot into the ground and get vertical. We labeled it as running as if he is a running back. Those are the big plays that you see him being able to make.”


General Strategies on Kickoffs & Punts

He’ll always take a touchback, but you can also “steal possessions” by having a kicker who can put the ball in a spot you need to like Phil Dawson did for him in Arizona last year. He said they are having Zane Gonzalez work on that now, but “if you are going to miss, miss with a touchback.”
On punts, you don’t mind skying the ball near the 10 yard line to make the return man stuck in between with whether he wants to return it or call fair catch — because then you can take advantage of a mistake. Similarly, on kickoffs, you can purposely kick the ball two yards into the end zone to entice the return man to take it out.

Competition

Jones said there is a “real competition” at punter between Britton Colquitt and Justin Vogel, but also added that he couldn’t answer the question any other way because of Colquitt’s surgery.
At kicker, specifically Zane Gonzalez, Jones said that most special teams are really just “competing against themselves, not against others.”

Other Notes

Here is some good information regarding the types of things they do and prepare their players for in order to reduce being a highly-penalized team on special teams:

“It always goes back to technique. You are going to see a lot of this with the kickoff return. You are going to see people in a trail position of kickoff return that have never really been an emphasis on kickoff return because most of them have been going back at them. We do not allow jersey pulling in practice. We do not allow horse-collar block-type techniques. I think it is what you allow to happen if you do not correct it immediately. That has been my deal through the years is we know going in what we better not do in practice and do not put it on tape in practice because if it happens in practice, you are going to see it in the game. We are trying to put them in competitive situations in practice where you see the guy trying to get an advantage and he is really not getting an advantage, he is giving you a disadvantage. We are not going to be a penalized team. It is just not good for team football because you are talking about 40-plus yards every time, and a penalty negates that. Same thing on a kickoff return, you are going to see what the spacing is of the two men coming together on the back end because you cannot cluster anymore. We always are going to preach no penalties.”

Josh Cribbs is a coaching intern, and Jones called him a legend. He and assistant Sam Shade appreciate Cribbs’ enthusiasm. They said that Cribbs invented a drill for them to use and they are calling it the “Cribbs Drill.” Although Cribbs was primarily a return man, he was also a gunner, and this particular drill involved that as a tackler.

“I think he has got a great future in him, I really do. He wants to do it. His wife probably wanted to get him out of the house anyway (laughter).”

I think that a lot of people tend to ignore how important having core players on special teams is. Special teams always has a ton of youth on them, so you need those guys who are almost like 2 guys on the field. (like Johnson Bademosi was) People came to dislike him because the team tried to turn him into a full time Safety, which he was never suited to be, but he has always been a spectacular special teams player, on all units, but especially as a gunner.

Hopefully now having 3rd year players, (and/or other veterans, as well) we will find some stability on special teams, that has been missing over the past several years.

I wasn't talking about all kickers...geesh.

j/c

I wasn't saying Tabor was a bad coach (he actually put together a nice ST unit a few years ago) .. but we certainly weren't as good the past 2 seasons or so.

Also, I'm worried about the loss of Carder on STs.

Somebody would have been called for holding and we would be punting another 15 yards back.

I think he could've been like that high round kicker the Bucs drafted. Just lost his confidence. Zane definitely started to work himself out of a hole he dug for himself towards the end of the season.

All in all, let's hope Haley and our offense put six up instead of all these three point attempts lol.

Yeah, he seemed to hit his stride after some struggles.

But yes, let's hope he's just worried about extra points

Without bothering to look it up, that's the way I recall it. He struggled early but made a good recovery and looked much better as time went on.

Yes Gonzalez came on after a shakey start and IMO I think he will be fine, I love his strong leg (No KO Returns for TD's) and if it comes down down to a long FG to win I will take him anywhere 60 yards and in ...

We can probably deletet this one for redundancy.

We should break the bank for Jim Tressel, special teams

Still not asking for Zane’s head

Still need work....

The ST coach needs to go.

Why do you guys think they pulled put landry in on returns?

Man, it just seems peppers looks for the defender when he returns a punt.

He was horrible in ARZ. Letting Chris Tabor walk was a big mistake.

#FireHueToday