Hangtime ...

[MauiRam]

Anybody have any info on kickoff hangtime? If Jeff's leg strength was declining the last couple of years, I would guess that this affected not only his distance, but his hang time as well. It seems that hangtime gets more notice when punting is involved, but not much mention is made of hangtime when it comes to kickoffs .. Could a fair part of our special teams coverage woes actually have been attributed to Wilkins? I wonder .. If his kickoffs were often short and they had relatively short hangtime to boot, small wonder then that our coverage team continually had troubles corralling the return man.

Given that the average special teams guy is covering 10 yds a second or a little better, going downfield, poor hangtime would definitely be a debilitating factor for the coverage unit .. Meanwhile, the return specialist gets the ball sooner, and his blockers have more time to set up. Basically it gives the opposition a head start so to speak ..

Is it therefore being too optimistic to think our coverage unit should improve a fair degree with just the signing of Josh Brown? I wonder ... Thoughts ??

[shower beers]

I can't imagine it would hurt us. I have to admit, though that I have no idea.

[TheBritishRam]

Your theory is correct, less hangtime = better return. Here are Wilkin's KO stats from the last 8 seasons, not sure what conclusions you can draw from them.

Kickoffs
----------------------KO Avg TB Ret Avg TB %
2007 St. Louis Rams 66 63.4 5 58 27.2 7.5
2006 St. Louis Rams 83 63.2 11 68 25.0 13.3
2005 St. Louis Rams 80 63.3 6 70 25.4 7.5
2004 St. Louis Rams 70 63.6 3 66 25.5 4.2
2003 St. Louis Rams 96 65.1 12 82 24.0 12.5
2002 St. Louis Rams 71 61.8 9 57 23.8 12.7
2001 St. Louis Rams 98 64.5 10 86 25.5 10.2
2000 St. Louis Rams 66 66.1 15 49 25.3 22.7

There seems to be little correlation between touchback percentage and average starting position on a drive. I didn't include early years because i can't remember when the KO position was moved 30 yard line but by looking at his stats i guess it was 2001.

[BEER]

Originally Posted by MauiRam

Anybody have any info on kickoff hangtime? If Jeff's leg strength was declining the last couple of years, I would guess that this affected not only his distance, but his hang time as well. It seems that hangtime gets more notice when punting is involved, but not much mention is made of hangtime when it comes to kickoffs .. Could a fair part of our special teams coverage woes actually have been attributed to Wilkins? I wonder .. If his kickoffs were often short and they had relatively short hangtime to boot, small wonder then that our coverage team continually had troubles corralling the return man.

Given that the average special teams guy is covering 10 yds a second or a little better, going downfield, poor hangtime would definitely be a debilitating factor for the coverage unit .. Meanwhile, the return specialist gets the ball sooner, and his blockers have more time to set up. Basically it gives the opposition a head start so to speak ..

Is it therefore being too optimistic to think our coverage unit should improve a fair degree with just the signing of Josh Brown? I wonder ... Thoughts ??

Your 100% right on..Me and some friends have always talked about his
kickoffs hurting our special teams..