Walters and punt returns

hawkfan68

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I am disappointed in Walters' punt returns. I'd like to see Baldwin have a crack at it. I thought there was a lot of green on many of the punts to see Walters go toward the first white shirt he saw. He's not dynamic at all and his first step seems extremely slow. With that said, if he is the return man moving forward...I hope he improves.
 

brimsalabim

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Walters is a tuff son of a gun and he ways fields the ball.
 

Hawks46

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I agree, he's average at best. He's just not quick enough.

That said, he is very reliable.
 

Maelstrom787

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Right now, we need reliability. Don't think that Pete isn't looking for a stud punt returner to sign/draft this offseason, though!

At least, I hope he's looking for a good one.
 

dusktreader

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hawkfan68":1vdtok46 said:
I am disappointed in Walters' punt returns. I'd like to see Baldwin have a crack at it. I thought there was a lot of green on many of the punts to see Walters go toward the first white shirt he saw. He's not dynamic at all and his first step seems extremely slow. With that said, if he is the return man moving forward...I hope he improves.

I wasn't impressed with his returns, but he seems reliable to make the right decision. I'll take a 4 yard return over negative yards or a fumble every time.
 

253hawk

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You can not win on this forum. Everyone was whining about Earl not fair-catching punts and now Walters fields them but has no blocking in front of him so he can't do anything with his touches. :roll:
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HunnyBadger

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As long as he doesn't fumble, I don't care if he only gets 0--3 yards per return.
 

CANHawk

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Earl scared the living poo outta me as a returner. At least with Walters I don't freak out about turnovers and needless full speed shots on an all pro position player. BW is doing exactly what we need him to do and it's fine by me.
 

BigMeach

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My concern with Walters is the way he secures the ball. Even after that fumble he had in the preseason he is still holding the ball the same way while running. I don't know if it's just the size of his arms making the ball look huge and loose or if he is not holding it properly, but the thing looks like it could pop out if you sneeze on it.
 

kmedic

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I really think this is gonna bite us in the ass at some point this season. We need more out of our punt returns than 5 yards or a fair catch. We're not built to blow out opponents- the majority of our games will be tight into the fourth quarter. Field position can mean the difference between a win or loss. I can remember several of our comeback wins over the past few years were setup by a huge punt return by Tate in the fourth quarter. We don't have anything like that this year and I am betting it's gonna cost us at some point this season.
 

Sgt. Largent

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253hawk":3q4mkbom said:
You can not win on this forum. Everyone was whining about Earl not fair-catching punts and now Walters fields them but has no blocking in front of him so he can't do anything with his touches. :roll:
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Walters is fine, he's just not going to give us much. But I get it, he's safer than Earl thinking he's Superman and never fair catching.

IMO Pete should have been working tirelessly with guys like Baldwin, Kearse, P-Rich or Turbin over the summer to take over PR and give us a more dynamic return game. Walters is safe, but that's it.
 

Largent80

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Huh?....He had almost no room on every punt. One of them he got moving pretty damn quick. Not sure what you guys saw, I rewatched the game and really liked what I saw, can't wait for him to get some room to roll.

I really like him back there.
 

ZagHawk

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HunnyBadger":2hspgkej said:
As long as he doesn't fumble, I don't care if he only gets 0--3 yards per return.

This. I just feel like a lot of our PR/KR experiments have been pretty bad. Kearse, Turbin, Thomas, even at times Percy i.e. that second to last return where he spent valuable seconds just trying to catch the ball in bounds, then he took it out to get tackled at the 5 I think. Yeah...no bueno.
 

HawkWow

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When was the last time we blocked a punt? Forget setting up the return. It's not our forte' at this time.

With a huge rush, if not blocked, the punter is naturally going to increase his trajectory in effort to get the ball off his foot. In theory, the ball should land like a balata, not rolling very far if not fielded.

Rich Rodriguez was a damn fine ST coordinator for us back in the day. We blocked punts (and even the odd FG). Worse case is we take the ball where it lands and put Wilson and what should be a very fine O on the field to move the ball. No injuries, no penalties and the upside of a possible block that might even go to the house.
 

taco40

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hawkfan68":3pa6lyxk said:
I am disappointed in Walters' punt returns. I'd like to see Baldwin have a crack at it. I thought there was a lot of green on many of the punts to see Walters go toward the first white shirt he saw. He's not dynamic at all and his first step seems extremely slow. With that said, if he is the return man moving forward...I hope he improves.
I counted zero fumbles and when given the chance to go backwards in order to attempt to get around the defenders, which rarely works, he went straight ahead for three yards that didn't look to be there.
 

HawkWow

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fenderbender123":3pxpdf79 said:
I thought Walters did a fine job returning punts.

He definitely looked more poised than he did in the pre season. But I attributed that to him trying to win a spot. I have no problem with Walters back there. It's the 3 ST guys ready to nail him as he catches the ball that concerns me in regards to that facet of our (current) return game. You can't make chicken soup out of chicken poop. He's had nowhere to run.
 

seabowl

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HawkWow":1lblq1y9 said:
When was the last time we blocked a punt? Forget setting up the return. It's not our forte' at this time.

With a huge rush, if not blocked, the punter is naturally going to increase his trajectory in effort to get the ball off his foot. In theory, the ball should land like a balata, not rolling very far if not fielded.

Rich Rodriguez was a damn fine ST coordinator for us back in the day. We blocked punts (and even the odd FG). Worse case is we take the ball where it lands and put Wilson and what should be a very fine O on the field to move the ball. No injuries, no penalties and the upside of a possible block that might even go to the house.

I remember when Rodriguez was our ST coordinator and yes he rally improved the unit. My only complaint though was that the big reason for the improvement was that he replaced the former ST players with the teams offensive and defensive starters at the time, again we really improved but a big reason was because of this.
 
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