Guys That Don't Play Special Teams

- Posted by Sam -

This post is primarily motivated by the continued harping on the "difficulty" of keeping McNabb, Kolb and Vick active on game day. The theory is that if we keep Vick active, we will have to deactivate a special teams guy. Of course, nobody has actually asked if that is really the choice that will be made. So I did a little research.

On a roster, there are a lot of guys who don't play special teams (and by that, I mean coverage and blocking guys, not return specialists). Your 3-down players typically don't play special teams, though situational players do (for example, on the Eagles, the nickel corner and a LB who comes off the field in nickel situations both typically play STs). Veterans don't play special teams. Fat guys usually don't play special teams (backup DTs not named Klecko, for example, don't play at all, while OL not named Justice are usually asked to block on FGs and XPs) unless they are used in the wedge. Backup QBs don't play special teams, unless they are holders on kicks.

Last year I kept track of the Eagles' "Special Teams Production Points" by game. I confess, STs Points is a "black box" statistic, published by the team without any real explanation for how it is earned. However, it is clear that more points is better than less and zero points means you didn't do anything notable on special teams that game.

If 3-down players and QBs are excluded, then we get the following number of active players who didn't record a production point each week during the regular season.

Now, a few notes about that. Early in the year, there are  lot of guys who aren't playing -- or at least playing well -- on special teams. I will get into that more later. After the bye week, that number falls when Tracy White and Kyle Eckel are added to the team. Then, following the Cincinnati and Baltimore debacles, there is another level shift through to the end of the year. The one outlier that should be disregarded is the Washington game in Week 16. Very low scoring, and if you were on the kickoff or FG/XP team, you didn't get much of a chance to record any points. So that is a false spike.

More interesting is a look at the culprits:

Fat guys:

• Winston Justice: Did not record a point in 13 of his 14 active games. Anyone else remember the 14th?
• Darren Howard: Old DL.
• Trevor Laws: One of the two guys that started playing STs starting after the Cin/Balt meltdown. Though the cause was probably Nick Cole moving out of the wedge and into the starting offensive line.

Veterans:

• Lito Sheppard: Here's the other guy who didn't play STs until the season was on the line in the last five or six weeks.
• Correll Buckhalter: I'm being a little disingenuous in including Buck. He recorded 37 points on the season, but 26 of those were in two good weeks (2 and 9), so he was generally not much of a contributor. But he rarely was responsible for the zeros mentioned above. He would have a 1 or a 2.
• Reggie Brown: Recorded no special teams point at all in the entire year. In fact, Reggie has recorded 9 points in his entire career. Part of that is because he was a starter for much of that time. He didn't have that excuse last year, and certainly doesn't have it this year.
• LJ Smith: Early in the year, LJ was playing ... but playing hurt. They kept him off of STs during that time.
• Matt Schobel: Failing to record a point in 3 of the 7 games he was active, this is yet another reason this guy's continued presence on the team is baffling.

Young and Not Trusted -- Or Perhaps Incapable:

• Lorenzo Booker: Active weeks 1-9 and 13-14, Booker did squat on special teams. And it was the number one reason he stopped getting activated -- and will probably be a big reason he doesn't make the team this year.
• Tony Hunt: That's right, everyone, Tony Hunt was a disaster not just at RB and FB but on STs. He recorded 21 points (that is a lot) in week 1 ... and finished his Eagles career with 21 points. Which is why he still hasn't gotten an invite to try out for another NFL team, as far as I know.
• Joe Mays: This one was a bit perplexing. Mays was only activated for two games, but you'd think the coaches would have run him out on special teams. They didn't. No idea why.

Of the guys listed above, all of the veterans except Reggie Brown and Matt Schobel (for now) are gone. Hunt is gone, and Booker will likely follow, and Mays will play STs if he is active and not starting this year. The fat guys remain.

That means that there are actually a few openings for guys who won't play STs on the active roster. Figure that there are three. Likely candidates include:

• Jeremy Maclin: If the guy isn't returning kicks or punts, he almost certainly isn't going to be asked to play at all on special teams. Too young, and drafted too highly at a skill position for that job.
• LeSean McCoy: See Maclin, but without a chance of being a return specialist.
• Mike Vick: Quarterback. Much discussed.
• Leonard Weaver: It isn't that he can't play STs, I just can't find much evidence that he did in Seattle or has done so here in the preseason. If he doesn't play here, Thomas Tapeh may be due an apology from a certain coach.

And that's it, right? Therefore, I think that ultimately the main cost of activating three QBs will be at worst asking Leonard Weaver to play special teams. Which doesn't seem like that much of a cost to me. Certainly, we are talking about adding him to a roster with a lot less dead weight on special teams.