do we have the best Special Teams in the history of the NFL this year?

Originally posted by AB83Rules:
And the best ST Coordinator, Brad Selly.

agreed the underrated coaching transaction during the harbaugh hire

The combination of great punting/punt coverage, place kicking AND the ability to return kicks effectively I do not recall being very strong in all 3 areas on any team before...

For instance, how well does Chicago punt and kick FGs?

BTW, I think the literal kicking aspect of our ST is more important than being better at returns......pinning opponents deep and scoring points, it doesn't matter as much if it's Ginn, Hester, or whomever.

Originally posted by gold49digger:

Originally posted by AB83Rules:
And the best ST Coordinator, Brad Selly.

agreed the underrated coaching transaction during the harbaugh hire

yep, and a big signing that people weren't understanding was Costanzo, guy is a ST Gunner, even an alternate for special teams on pro bowl.

We have a pro bowl level special teams. Akers, Lee, and Ginn are all outstanding. Lost in all that is that our kick coverage is also really very good. We are just awesome in all phases of special teams.

Originally posted by AB83Rules:

Originally posted by gold49digger:

Originally posted by AB83Rules:
And the best ST Coordinator, Brad Selly.

agreed the underrated coaching transaction during the harbaugh hire

yep, and a big signing that people weren't understanding was Costanzo, guy is a ST Gunner, even an alternate for special teams on pro bowl.

And we have Brad Seely also . . .

Who cares if we are best or not. It would be hard, really, really hard to be better than this group has been. What is really remarkable, is how bad our STs had been before JH came here. We had a good punter, but could not cover kickoffs or punts. And we never had a positive yardage gain on exchange of punts. Also, we never routinely kept the other team on their side of the 50. Now that is commonplace, and 85-95 yrd drives are now necessary to score on us. As for Akers, what can I say, other than "thank you Philadelphia".

It would be interesting to see where this years STs sit among all other NFL teams in the past.

I had a dream last night that during the playoffs, it was 4th and short and Andy Lee threw the ball on a fake punt. And not only that, he kissed the ball first and did this funny shot-put throw for a first down. It was glorious.

Would be hard to come up with stats on every area of ST from every era. Oakland had great STs in the Guy days with punting, returning, FGs. But this 9er team has almost every area covered with probowl caliber players. Thinking about my feelings as I watch the 9er games, it seems I don't worry much on kickoffs, and when Ginn is playing no worry regarding receiving kicks. When an oponent returns a kickoff past the 20 I am always surprised.

The only time I worried all year was last week when Hunter decided to run out of the end zone...I began thinking...just down the bleeping ball in the endzone!

u guys kidding?? in the history of the nfl???? c'mon man! Hester ring a bell???

Originally posted by ChazBoner:
u guys kidding?? in the history of the nfl???? c'mon man! Hester ring a bell???

Talking about ST as a unit--all aspects. Hester doesn't punt, kick FG, etc.

Originally posted by ChazBoner:
u guys kidding?? in the history of the nfl???? c'mon man! Hester ring a bell???

Hester was on an average ST unit.

When a team has two ST players setting all-time NFL records for their positions... it stands within reason they are on the best ST unit of all time. And it may not be close.

Coach Walsh never wasted a draft pick on STs. He assumed his players could do double duty on STs, which I believe was his one failing. I am guessing that he never coached STs, but can't recall from his book. Had Coach Walsh worked on STs as much as he did O and D, he probably would have won 2, or maybe 3 more SBs. So good as Lee and Akers and Ginn are, our coverage guys, from KOs to Punts do just a fantastic job. Sure Lee or Akers gets the ball down there, but the gunners are the ones that have really had only one or two punts/KOs run back past the 40-45. And I believe that was only twice. The rest of the time opponents are starting deep in their own end, typically facing 85-90 yds to go for a TD. Now that plus the 3 ST stars makes for a very reasonable Best of all time ST.

Thinking about this subject some more and there is one area that our Special Teams unit wasn't great... blocking for the kickers. Too many blocked kicks.

Still one of the best special teams units of all time.

I was totally amped up when we hired Brad Seely. The guy is a genius.

So many GREAT coaches on this staff.

Do you guys remember that our special teams looked awful in preseason? Seely fixed them before the first regular season game.

Just outstanding... can't compliment him and his guys enough.

These boys BROUGHT it today. Not just Lee and Akers, but the coverage and return squads too. My dad got a kick outta watching em hoppin and swag going off before the kickoffs. Called em LOCCO BOYS lol. They really awesome.