I was curious so I checked. The current minimum wage for the practice squad is $6,300 per week.
Yep, the Niners went out and acquired Reggie Bush as a RB flex option behind Hyde and probably Kendall Hunter. That puts Bush probably in the lead for the kick or punt return duties.
I think Hayne has a decent shot at making the final roster – I wasn’t so sure a few months ago – but the deck is still stacked against him.
Isn’t that a raise from his current $100k salary? 
Meh, he can’t even step the punter for a touchdown.
And he missed a tackle as well.
One day Hayne’s story will make a great movie.
That must be incredibly fun watching him on your favorite team.
He definitely runs funny; something is just a bit off. It’s like…I can’t think of any other way to say it than he’s playing rugby in an NFL game.
The return in your first link he absolutely should have let bounce. I don’t know if he was out of position or if the punter uncorked a better punt than everyone expected. It’s a bad percentage play and very dangerous.
As I said upthread it is hard to put these plays in context. He is most likely going up against the other team’s 3rd string hopefuls who might not be good enough to play special teams. Doing well against scrubs is not all that the coaching staff uses to evaluate talent. It is hard to predict what will happen because we don’t see everything that goes on and don’t have all the information.
I think it will come down to if the team wants to use up a roster spot on a return specialist. Some teams have, many will not. If they see enough in him to be able to use him in 3rd down situations or occasional offensive packages too then he will definitely get a spot. The fact that he is a good story will help him too. And the fact that San Fran is going to be hurting this year.
He needs to stop running into people on his punt returns. That might work in Rugby since there aren’t pads and you have a better chance of knocking a guy down, but not in football.
That being said, he showed decent acceleration on his third return you showed and layed a good stiff arm as a runner.
Based solely on your clips in this thread, he’s a better RB than Punt Returner
I don’t know, He’s a good deal bigger than the average PR or gunner. If he can power over the first guy without changing his angle or losing too much speed, all the better.
Jeez, you guys are harsh. Hayne is a world-class athlete, the best in his sport which just so happens to be extremely similar to NFL football in required skillset.
You sound like the “pundits” (read: loud mouthed ex-players ) in the NHL and MLB who swore that Euros (Hockey) and Japanese (Baseball) would never succeed in North America. The Euros were too soft for the “real” game and the Japanese, with their crazy windups and funky pitches wouldn’t be able to get past A Ball. And lets not even talk about Japanese position players. They’d have a hard time hitting one out of Williamsport.
Hayne has done nothing but succeed in the NFL so far, but because he isn’t illiterate and didn’t play for Alabama he can’t possibly make it.
Newsflash: A lot of those guys who were animals in HS don’t progress much in college and can get comfortably lost when surrounded by real monsters in college. Remember how long it took before the NFL figured out that you don’t draft QB’s from USC in the First Round? Surrounded and protected by giants on the O-Line and throwing to WR’s who could qualify for the Olympics in sprints make a guy look real good. It’s why Tim Tebow is getting his fifth or sixth chance in the NFL even though anyone with a lick of objectivity knows that he sucks as a QB.
Hayne will make it and do just fine, if not become a star.
Who pissed in your Wheaties this morning? Hayne might be a world class athlete (just like everyone else in the NFL at this point), and he might be among the best in the world at rugby, but he’s not playing rugby. There’s certainly overlap between the rugby and football skillsets, but the skills don’t transfer one-to-one. He doesn’t get novelty points for being a rugby star, and he needs to be evaluated based on the way he plays football.
Loach crticized Hayne’s decision-making on one play. Making those decisions is a critical part of the job he’s trying out for, so that’s going to have to be one of the things that he’s judged on. Sir T-Cups noted one thing he did poorly and a couple of things he did well. That’s not harsh - it’s what happens with every on-the-bubble player on every team.
I’d like to know what essential skills a Punt Returner/RB needs to have that a career in Rugby League doesn’t prepare you for.
Nobody succeeds in the NFL in August.
Tebow went to Florida, not USC.
Every other on-the-bubble player has been playing this game competitively for 10 or more years. Hayne has played his second competitive football game, ever.
The criticisms are at best ticky-tack. Punt returners run into guys all the time. Hayne is able to make guys miss, he’s averaging something like 20yds a return. I’d consider him a player with proven hands to catch a kicked ball, and the ability to make guys miss. His running style is more upright than we’re used to, so it looks ‘wrong’, but if he’s making yards, let it go.
I’ll say this, the team didn’t pay him $100,000 to show up, lead the team in rushing, get 20yds a punt return, only to say “yeah, but it was against 3rd stringers.” and cut him loose. He’s going to have to show an inability to succeed if they’re going to cut him, and he hasn’t.
He hasn’t even made it out of camp. He has not succeeded at anything in the NFL. Preseason is just practice that they televise. He may do well in real games. He may not. As I’ve stated a couple of times we don’t have all the information to even guess if he will make the team. Going up against a bunch of other guys on the bubble is not the only way they gauge a player. It just happens to be the only one we get to see.
And yes I criticized him on one play. He did well and made a good gain on it. But as a punt returner one of the most important things they need to do is make good decisions. Their first job is to safely catch the ball. Any gains are gravy. But they need to know when to catch, when to let it go and when to fair catch. The downside to a punt returner who makes bad decisions is much worse than the upside if he breaks a nice return every now and then.
Right now he has some big positives on his side. He looks like a decent to pretty damn good punt returner against completion that I don’t have enough information to evaluate. I have also only seen the plays he did well on. I have no idea how well he is doing overall. He has a great backstory so it’s good publicity for a team who has had a lot of bad news this off season.
On the negative side I don’t know where they see him on the depth chart. It is rare that a team will waste a spot on a return guy that they don’t feel can do the job on offense. The only non-return runs I have seen him do were runs through gigantic holes.
If I had to bet right now I would say they will sign him. They may even be getting pressure from a league that is trying to expand into other markets. But that is a guess. I have no idea what the coaches are thinking.
You’re kind of off the deep end here. Hayne has in fact done nothing in the NFL, succeed or otherwise. And it’s not like we’re watching clips of him breaking off touchdowns. He looks big and strong and decisive and that’s nice. But he’s not playing in the NFL. It’s not that harsh to say we don’t know yet whether he’s good enough. It is however fairly insane to suggest he’s going to be an NFL star.
This stuff about illiterates and USC seems like maybe a different issue.
I know where Tebow went. The point is, there are a ton of QB’s who would have looked great playing in Florida’s offense.
There are a ton of “can’t miss” guys who have played football their entire lives who don’t translate into NFL players, but a guy with all the skills and close to a decade of professional success in a closely related field should be regarded with suspicion?
Especially given that Tebow did not go to USC, he was a running quarterback who many had doubts about being a NFL style quarterback and despite that fact that he is (gasp) religious he is an intelligent guy.
Working with blockers. That’s a pretty important part of kick returns, and there’s no rugby analog to it at all.
Being in the right position and making the decision to let a kick go instead of trying a high-risk catch are ticky-tack criticisms? His eccentric running style, sure, but those other concerns (high risk plays, unnecessary contact) can lead directly to turnovers. That’s anything but ticky-tack.
The $20 bill in my pocket is worth more to me than that $100,000 is to the 49ers. If they need to cut Hayne to make roster space for another player, he’s gone. Look at the dead money charges teams carry on their salary caps - that’s cash already shelled out to players who aren’t on the teams anymore. Once a tam decides a player isn’t going to contribute enough, he’s gone, no matter how much of a loss the team has to eat.
Tebow was the leading rusher in a running offense. No there weren’t a lot of quarterbacks who would have looked great in their offense. Their offense was molded around him. He is undeniably a great athlete. Unfortunately for him the NFL is a completely different game. His running ability and size are an asset but it is not the main ability needed in the NFL. Tebow was hardly a “can’t miss” guy. I know it was a while ago but there was a lot of talk at the time about his ability to play in the NFL.
I’m not seeing where Hayne is running into tacklers on purpose himself any more than any other running back or kick returner. It seems his first instinct is to juke, where is he initiating contact?
Teams carry a return specialist all the time. At this point it would be hard for the 49ers to cut him. Their other returner options don’t look any good, the fanbase would be pissed, they’d lose the entire country of Australia, and another team is sure to claim him off waivers or sign him of the practice squad. All he has to be is halfway decent and he’d be better than the last few years of return production.