Every kickoff? All 3 times including the last onside kick that he grabbed and walked OB with? Boykin did not practice all week and I don't expect him to be ready to go unless possibly for the SB when we get there.
The question is, if Nelson should aggrivate his Hammy, and goes down, are we better off with Ross or Driver as the replacement for our #4 WR? We can sit back and take touchbacks and go from the 20 if the worry over getting Cobb hurt is that big. Better have him fair catch all punts in that case also. But the damage to the offensive gameplan would be far worse if Ross has to become our #4.
Originally Posted by: PackFanWithTwins
You can't just assume, pre-game, that the Vikings will put points on the board just twice and that one of those will be followed up with an onside kick.
On the contrary, I figured that, between a kicker who's good from anywhere within 60 yards, an option QB and with the best running back in the league by far, we'd take quite a few points from field goals with them stalling in the redzone.
If that's the case, Ross touches the ball 5 or 6 times. You just can't predict that.
And yes, I'd take Cobb off of punt returns, as well, now that we have a good 2nd option who's not as important to our offensive gameplan.
I remember having this discussion about Tramon Williams in the past.
I get it when you have a guy like Patrick Peterson, who's just head and shoulders above the rest of the return team in Arizona, but whenever you have a back-up who's doing just as good a job, why not go with him?
And good point on Boykin, of course. But that doesn't change anything. Ross has been with the team for the entire season, as well. He should know the offense. He should be able to catch a ball. I reckon his route running still isn't that crisp, as that was one of his main knocks coming out of college, but with his speed, fluidity and shiftiness he should be able to get some kind of seperation... Something Driver can't do anymore.
Leadership, knowledge etc are all good and well, but when you can't keep up physically, it's little use. I know he compensates with smarts, but there's only so much compensation you can do.
I know his snap count was way higher than Ross' or Boykin's, but I don't see what he, at this point in his career, brings to the field that one of those young guys couldn't.
Take, next to the numbers that I previously mentioned, that he makes one reception every 19 offensive snaps that he's in the game... That's not very pretty. That means that he both doesn't get a whole lot of snaps, even in an injury-riddled WR group, and when he does, he doesn't even do a whole lot with them.
In all honesty, if one of our receivers went down again, I'd go three receiver sets before I'd sent in either Driver, Ross or Boykin. We have Harris, we have Green, we have Kuhn. From our RB group alone you could get some nice passing yardage. Then add to that that we're still carrying four TEs and there's enough ways to come out pretty strong, without having to rely on Driver.