Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
The New York Giants are on the hunt for a new special teams coordinator and these are 8 potential candidates they could consider.
The New York Giants are in need of a new special teams coordinator after firing long-time assistant Thomas McGaughey on Monday.
Here are eight quick names the team might look at.
Note: Some of these candidates may currently be employed with other teams and would require termination (or resignation) before joining the Giants.
Washington special teams coach Nate Kaczor met with the media on Friday.
Commanders special teams coach Nate Kaczor met with the press Friday, expressing he likes Antonio Gibson returning kicks.
“He does a nice job of getting where the seam is and has a good feel for that. His size and quickness to put his foot in the ground and get there before it closes up allows him to get productive yardage. And I know that when you get to the 30 or 31 yard line to the naked eye might not seem like a lot, but if you statistically look at the amount of returns in the NFL to the 30 or passed, there are just not a lot of them.”
Jeremy Reaves has pleased Kaczor with his punt coverage this season.
“There’s a lot of times where they’re bringing eight people and all of our interiors are occupied blocking a rush so [P] Tress [Way] can even punt the ball. So in that event, the gunners are singled up and they need to win for us. So when you see Jeremy Reaves down the field, he’s already blocked somebody and left. Or there’s times when they may double a gunner and Jeremy’s not blocking and he can get out fast.”
On CB Christian Holmes as a gunner:
He has “improved from potentially having a big play in Detroit to executing and getting the play done. He’s the one that actually downed this one at home against the Packers. But where he has improved is just his situational awareness. Obviously, when we drafted him, he is a big muscled up and a really linear fast player and he’s just gotten better and better.“
K Joey Slye has missed a field goal in each of the last two games.
“I think as long as the kicker knows they’re striking the ball well, the alignment stuff is something you can work on. As long as their mind is right, as I’ve said to you all before, then you’re not as concerned. And when you win a game and it’s not as at the forefront, it just makes the work environment more conducive to getting things fixed. He’s really hitting the ball well.”
Muff punts are a time when “any little indecision that can cause mechanical problems on a returner, those can happen. The bottom line is when they don’t catch the ball, if you’re not there to do something about it, you’re not gonna get ’em.”
Often special teams are simply not being a heavily recognized part of the game.
“You have to recognize that people might not notice this or notice that, but once in a while when everyone recognizes it, there’s a play to be made to help win the game…Those are the things in our special teams meetings that we have to prop up and give them a lot of credit in front of their teammates. Like, man, that’s really good.”
Nate Kaczor offered excellent insight into some of his special-teams decisions on Thursday.
Being an NFL special teams coach is not an easy task.
Nate Kaczor appeared before the media Thursday as Washington prepares to travel to Kansas City for a 4 p.m. ET Saturday game at Arrowhead Stadium.
One of the obstacles for Kaczor is the NFL now schedules one less preseason game, thus an entire game of reps is completely lost for players trying to make the team through their performance on special teams. It also means the units might be less prepared for the regular season.
“It’s well noted that we’ve got some players that hadn’t been on special teams reps the day we had pads on because we’re running outta opportunities to have padded reps. The last thing you want for a player that maybe hasn’t been a core special teams’ player, the first padded rep they get is against Jacksonville (Week 1).”
Kaczor was pleased with some aspects of the return units last week against Carolina:
” Dax (Milne) had a nice 12-yard punt return that was just taken advantage of a really good punt, but we had a good blocking on that left side, and he snuck down the left sideline. So probably better blocking on part return then kickoff return in that first game.”
When asked about the team moving on from Troy Apke, Kaczor was clear, he provides input, but all personnel decisions are made by Coach Rivera and management. “Troy is a player that has played good for us, but we just felt like at this time that there were players competing for that spot. Like I said, I’d defer to coach on answering that question, but we appreciate what Troy has done.”
Who might take Apke’s role on coverage teams this season?
“The guys that aren’t starting in those subpackages (Nickel and Buffalo), any of those down below that line that can run fast would be gunner candidates. Right now, two of the young ones we’re looking at that have not been around on defense would be Christian Holmes and Percy Butler.”
Regarding Antonio Gibson seen working in some special team units, “I’ll emphasize this because I don’t think a lot of people realize this, people may see Antonio practicing special teams and go ‘oh, you know, the offensive running back race.’ He’s approaching it as a professional as, ‘I need to get ready just in case I’m playing’ and professionals want to be prepared. That’s an impressive part of Antonio, he has approached this with a great professional attitude realizing, ‘I don’t want my first special teams rep on punt to be against the Jaguars in the regular season opener.’ So whether he’s out there or not, he wants to be prepared and that’s admirable.
One of the challenges for Kaczor is being given players for his units who are frustrated or down because they are not position starters. “A lot of times as a special teams coach, I might be dealing with a player who’s dealing with some disappointment on a role change on offense or defense. Sometimes when they walk in my office they’ve been told by an offensive or defensive coach that maybe the other guys going to start. So I’m not dealing all the time with guys that are just all excited to be talking to me and it’s for our job to get them excited about embracing that role.”
The former center at Utah State was asked about competition for punt returner. “Anyone that you see at practice catching punts is competing for that role. We tell the players all the time ‘preparation and execution over and over and over develops confidence.’ You’ll see the guys that did it in the first preseason game, they will all be available to do it against Kansas City.”
Watching Antonio Gibson return some kicks has seized Kaczor’s attention. “Those big returners that have speed, just like when they run the ball on offense, they’re harder to tackle. And he’s got a really good one-cut move that you see when he runs the wide zone for us on offense. But that’s the first thing that jumps out is the combination of the size. We all know he can run.”
Kaczor replied to more questions, but space does not permit for the entirety of his responses. However, here is the entire video.
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Washington has added slot WR Adam Humphries to the roster, further bolstering their receiving corps this offseason.
The Washington Football Team has agreed to terms with WR Adam Humphries, who visited today.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 25, 2021
The Washington Football Team hosted free-agent wide receiver, Adam Humphries, on a visit this week, and they are now agreeing to sign him to a contract for one year.
While we await the final contract details and look to see how much money is guaranteed, we can look at the fit of the move, which seems to make a lot of sense for both sides.
Though Washington already signed a perceived slot-receiver in Curtis Samuel, they reportedly still had desires to get better at the position through either free agency or the NFL Draft, and by signing Humphries, it will likely allow them to move Samuel to the outside to threaten the defense deep alongside Terry McLaurin. With those two occupying the safeties, it should allow both Humphries and TE Logan Thomas to feast underneath.
This is also a great landing spot for Humphries, who played alongside Ryan Fitzpatrick with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and had two of his best career seasons with the new Washington QB. From 2017-2018, when the two were playing together, Humphries had a total of 137 receptions for 1,447 yards and 6 touchdowns.
Humphries also acted as a viable punt-returner for the Buccaneers in his time with the team, which just so happened to be spent under then Special Teams Coordinator Nate Kaczor. Kaczor is now the Special Team’s Coordinator with the Washington Football Team so it could mean that Washington finds a fix at a big hole on the punt-return team.
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Before he was a star wideout in Washington, McLaurin was expected to make waves in the special teams before he broke out with a 70-yard TD.
Early on in Week 1 of the 2019 season, when the Washington Redskins had a nice first-half lead over the Philadelphia Eagles, Redskins special teams coach Nate Kaczor knew that he was missing out big time.
It wasn’t detrimental to the team, of course, but Kaczor knew that he would never get to utilize Terry McLaurin in the special teams as he had envisioned, having just watched him haul in a 70-yard touchdown on offense.
“That would be like getting a Christmas present and just when you opened it, your brother snatches it from you and you never get it back,” Kaczor said, via NBC Sports Washington. “It was humorous how fast that happened. Right off the bat.”
The truth is that McLaurin — who was drafted out of Ohio State in the third round of the 2019 draft — was thought to be primarily a special teams player early in his career while working his way up on the offense. Of course, McLaurin had different plans.
“Obviously with Terry, his makeup just as a football player, his character, his effort, intelligence, speed, the fact that that happened doesn’t surprise anybody,” Kaczor said. “So I was really happy for our football team and I was really happy for Terry.”
I think we can all be happy that McLaurin was able to assume a bigger role, and we were able to leave that return spot to Steven Sims Jr., where he took advantage of the opportunity and cracked his way into the offense. Will Antonio Gibson be the next player to follow that path? We can only hope.
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The Redskins have found some real success on special teams this year, but the coordinator says they still have much to improve on.
In back-to-back weeks now, the Washington Redskins have both notched a win and had a player named as the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week.
Not a bad run to be on.
However, the Redskins special teams’ coach, Nate Kaczor, says that they haven’t reached their potential yet. So far this year in the kick return game, they’ve had a 91-yard return for a touchdown by Steven Sims Jr., as well as an 85-yard return that was called back by penalties. If you ask Kaczor, they still have another level that they can get to before all is said and done.
“It’s not like it just started happening, but penalties and consistency and ball handling are always elements that you’re striving to get better at,” Kaczor said, via The Athletic. “I don’t think those are the elements where you would ever say you’re good enough at.”
Kaczor went on to discuss just how hard it is for blockers to avoid penalties on kick returns because the play is always happening behind them, and they often don’t know which way the runner is cutting to get around their man. Still, avoiding a foul on such momentum-shifting plays is imperative for team success, and that’s definitely something that Washington can get better at.
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