#kickoff returns

[the-football-chick]

NFL owners have approved new kickoff return rules

per profootballchase on IG:

[mystlnewsonline]

FORT WORTH, Texas | Murray the Big 12 offensive player of year, OU's 4th in row

FORT WORTH, Texas | Murray the Big 12 offensive player of year, OU’s 4th in row

FORT WORTH, Texas  — Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray is the unanimous pick for The Associated Press Big 12 offensive player of the year, the fourth consecutive season a player from the conference champion Sooners has won the honor.

Murray, a Heisman Trophy finalist who this week was also named the AP’s national player of the year , was one of a league-high six first-team picks from Oklahoma on…

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[the-football-chick]

New NFL kickoff rules designed to make kick off returns more similar to punt returns

via @NFLFootballOps/ twitter

[giterdonesports]

Thar's dunben a new artikle rote ahn www.GiterDoneSports.com

Thar's dunben a new artikle calt Tyreek Hill's 92-yard punt return forces OT, then Oklahoma State wins rote ahn www.GiterDoneSports.com

#KickoffReturns, #OklahomaState, #PuntReturn, #TyreekHill

Tyreek Hill's 92-yard punt return forces OT, then Oklahoma State wins

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[mcnabborkolb-blog-blog]

Dion Lewis and the Eagles Kickoff Return Futility

When you looked at the 2011 Eagles roster as a whole, it was plain that the team had enough overall talent to win more than eight games. But over and over again they demonstrated that they were less than the sum of their parts, failing at all the little parts of the game, like tackling and holding on to the ball.

Another one of these factors was kickoff returns. Dion Lewis, the rookie running back who didn't return kicks in college, took nearly all of the Eagles returns. And he was (predictably) dreadful at it.

As you can see above, out of 47 players who returned at least 10 kickoffs, Lewis ranked 43rd. His 21.7 yards per return was 3.3 yards from the median, which cost the Eagles an extra 100 yards (over 30 returns) they surely could have used.

Lewis's longest kickoff return was a mere 33 yards, again 43rd in the NFL. Whatever vision or explosiveness or speed that an kick returner needs to break through for a big gain, he didn't show it last year.

Note: Long returns do skew the average kick return results, obviously. In some ways that's good — achieving that is part of what makes a good returner. However, a returner could be overall below average but have one big return that skews everything upward. For the record, taking out the top return does little to improve Lewis's numbers relative to everyone else.

It's worth pointing out that this isn't a problem solely related to the rookie from Pitt. Lewis is only the latest in a string of poor kick returners, who you can see at right. He was actually better than Jorrick Calvin. Quintin Demps, back in 2008, was the last above-average returner the Eagles employed. It would be nice to see the Eagles try to correct that in 2012, although I won't be holding my breath.

Photo from Getty.