Who Steps Up as Leading Return Man?

Submitted by OaklandInPlay on

With Dennis Norfleet being officially gone; a return man prediction threads seems appropriate. 

 

PR

1. J.Peppers

2. T.Richardson

3. F.Canteen 

 

KR. 

1. J.Chesson/T.Richardson 

2. F. Canteen 

3. B.Cole

 

What does your depth chart look like?

 

Champeen

May 12th, 2015 at 2:45 PM ^

If Peppers plays some offense, i would put Brian Cole at both PR and KOR.  If Peppers plays only on D, i would like to see Peppers at PR and Cole at KOR.

lilpenny1316

May 12th, 2015 at 2:48 PM ^

Never really understood how or why one guy does not handle both roles on many college teams.  I guess the ability to catch the ball and make a quick cut immediately would separate the two positions.

TyTrain32

May 12th, 2015 at 3:07 PM ^

its harder to catcha punt, you have to accellerate quicker with a punt, one might argue that you need better vision for KR, or that top line speed is more important at KR. They are very similar but the skill sets are slighlty different.

aplatypus

May 12th, 2015 at 3:15 PM ^

I know a lot of people want a game breaker there like Peppers, and he probably would be great, but I always worry about increased chance of injury. Canteen has lightning quick feet as we know, and may be 4ish on WR depth chart so punt returner would be good for him, I think. 

Same with Cole and kick returns, he's supposedly blazingly fast (Peppers couldn't catch him in that one practice!) and not a starter that could devastate us if knicked up on a kick. 

Lanknows

May 12th, 2015 at 3:33 PM ^

Bring your 'gunners' and see how they enjoy tackling nearly 500 lbs of RB returners.

 

[this is how kickoff returns work, the biggest guys win]

ngowings

May 12th, 2015 at 4:14 PM ^

What's 90% of 30 yards? /s

Just because he was the primary, perhaps sole contributor to the return game, doesn't mean he was proficient. That's like saying, "who's going to replace Devin Gardner at QB? He was like 90% of our offense!" Well, idk, perhaps another warm body?




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Lanknows

May 12th, 2015 at 6:28 PM ^

after leading the conference in return yards in 2013.

I wasn't saying he's impossible to replace, but someone does need to step up to do the job.  If you noticed the last couple years, there was a massive dropoff when Gardner went out.

Lanknows

May 12th, 2015 at 3:41 PM ^

PR:  Whoever can catch the ball reliably....Jake Butt?

KR:  Irrelevant because our defense isn't going to let people score.  In the rare instances that they do - Drake Johnson, Jehu Chesson, Brian Cole, Drake Harris (assuming health), and Ty Isaac (assuming fitness) are all guys reported to have elite speed.  I wouldn't put Lewis or Peppers out there often because they'll be too important to the defense. Maybe a backup DB like Thomas or Stribling makes sense too.

Qmatic

May 12th, 2015 at 4:03 PM ^

He could very much be eligible for a medical. He was forced to redshirt his freshmen year due to injury, and played less than one game in '13. Either way, if he stays healthy along the way I suspect he'll get a 6th year. That will put him in the same class as Isaac and allow our new backs coming in to not have to be thrown into duty right away if they are not ready.




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drjaws

May 12th, 2015 at 5:04 PM ^

I'd rather not have Peppers returning kicks.  There's already plenty of injury chances playing safety.

I'd go with Canteen or perhaps Stribling . . .

Can we put Wangler in there just to hear "and Wangler back to receive the kick."

MeanJoe07

May 12th, 2015 at 5:44 PM ^

My greatest fear is that Peppers will always have injuries holding him back and or snap his ACL.  I know we have Harbaugh, but I'm so just so insecure whenever we have nice things.

CoachBP6

May 12th, 2015 at 5:47 PM ^

We have plenty of athletes that can fill the role. Whoever wins the job, will hopefully be very good wih ball security. We have a great special teams coach so I'm hoping o see more production from the return game.