Bloom Needs Blocking

So Andy Reid isn't blown away by the job Jeremy Bloom has done so far returning kicks:

After the Eagles' sloppy 27-13 preseason loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday at Heinz Field, Reid was asked to evaluate Jeremy Bloom's return work in the team's first three preseason games.

"He's done just OK," the coach said.

Pretty much.  The article does a good job laying out the stats of the matter, so I won't rehash them here, but it's clear that the return game has been mediocre to poor thus far in the preseason.

The issue for Bloom is that he's almost the mirror image of the guy who held the return job in Philly the last couple years.  Reno Mahe was slow as molasses, but he ran hard and used his running back skills to break tackles and grind out extra yards. 

Bloom is super-quick, but he's almost impossibly tiny.  Every return seems to end with him getting ragdolled by someone.  It's almost like watching the family touch football game, where dad swoops in and playfully picks up the kid running down the sideline.   

What this means is that Bloom really, really needs first-level blocking to be successful.  Whereas Reno could run over a guy if he had to (and who ever thought we'd be discussing the relative merits of Reno Mahe as a returner, rather than as just a great teammate) the key for Bloom is giving him a clean release and some lanes so he can actually go north/south and use his speed to beat tacklers.

Of course, if we decide we need to go back to a slow guy with great hands and the ability to break tackles, I hear Jason Avant is available.