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Traditionally one of the Kansas City Chiefs’ strengths on Sundays, the special teams return unit has come up a bit short for the team in 2021. They’re the only team in the league with two fumbles on kickoff returns. Despite averaging 23.8 yards on kickoffs and the second-most yardage in the league on punt returns, there remains room for improvement.
Special teams coordinator and assistant head coach Dave Toub is acutely aware that his returners have fumbled the bag in big-play situations. He told reporters ahead of Thursday’s practice about his philosophy on cutting his team’s losses and taking a fair catch.
“It’s not set in stone,” Toub explained. “I’ve talked about this before, about the type of kick. If it’s a rugby kick where it’s end over end, when they kick it, it has a tendency to stop and bounce back into the field of play, you want to try to fair catch those, so they don’t end up on the one. I think your next question would probably be why did Mecole (Hardman) fair caught that one on the five.
“I think he didn’t read the ball right. It was a spiral kick and the spiral kick at the five, you want to let that go because it’ll bounce back into the end zone probably seven out of ten times. You want to let that one go. He just probably made a bad read on the ball, if it was a rugby kick, you want to try to field it.”
Whether the return game has been a factor in Kansas City’s slow start isn’t in question, but their turnovers and greediness on returns certainly haven’t helped the offense. Top-ten marks in yardage and kickoff return distance are hollow if the wider strategy of the game is sacrificed for raw statistics.
It does the Chiefs no good to average nearly 25 yards per return on kickoffs if the ball is fielded in the end zone where, if it was left to drop, the team would get possession at the 25-yard line and mitigate the risk of a turnover. Maybe it’d be dramatic to say they’ve been the weakest link on a team with a bottom-five defense, but the return unit hasn’t done Kansas City any favors through six weeks.
In need of any edge they can get against Tennessee this week, the time for special teamers to step up and make their impact felt is now. Toub seems determined to make sure that, at a minimum, they don’t prove to be a liability in the crucial matchup.
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