Devin Hester is setting all sorts of kick returner records which makes me wonder if, great as he is, if he wouldn’t be more useful to the Chicago Bears as a regular wide receiver. I don’t know the answer to that question, and I’d be interested in everybody’s thoughts.
For the record Hester’s stats at the moment are 8 catches for 143 yards, 17.9 yds/catch, with 1 TD. I don’t know who the Bears have playing ahead of him.
Josh Cribbs of the Browns is a similar great return man, but he’s blocked by a couple of pretty good receivers.
Hester’s pretty small, 5’11". His hands are also crap, he fumbles the ball all the time on kick returns. Those are two strikes against him. Mushin Muhammad and Bernard Berrian are fairly decent receivers too. I’ve got no problem with him not being on offense.
Really I thought the best suggestion came from a Bill Simmons mailbag. Instead of using the standard offense with the rex/griese mess at QB, no running game and mediocre WRs, why not just have the best blockers on the field and snap the ball 20 yards back to Hester every play?
Actually, some direct snap trick plays might not be a bad idea. Maybe split backs as well (it would help if the Bears had an actual good RB.) Heck, get a QB that can run the option.
You want him on defense and special teams. You can put him in at times as a decoy or for more of a trick play. But of course you can’t do it too often and you can’t telegraph it, making it somewhat difficult to use Hester on offense.
A doper replied earlier that he lacks size and good hands, which are both true, and this scouting report mentions bad route running, which is a huge concern. If I were coaching, aside from decoys, I would try to find ways to involve him in the offense that don’t accentuate those shortcomings. Things like WR end-arounds and WR screens are perfect ways to get him the ball without requiring him to run a route or beat a DB on a route.
If I remember correctly, his lone TD reception came on a streak pattern along the sideline, where he just beat the DB down the field by four or five steps. If you have a QB who can overthrow him so he doesn’t have to fight a DB on a jump ball, this could work too.
I could see a 3 WR formation with Muhsin as a slot receiver and Hester on the outside working well, even is Hester is targeted only two or three times a game. You could run him straight down the sideline every down and force the defense to commit at least a corner, and probably a deep safety to prevent the bomb, opening up intermediate and short routes to the better receivers. I mean, he’s going to outrun just about everyone, right?
All kidding aside, with Rex and Griese at QB, what would be the point? Get a real QB in there, and maybe. Or do the Darren McFadden direct snap thing mentioned above.
Re. his dropping the ball: I’m optimistic that he can learn to catch a football. Hell, if meathead Tiki Barber could learn (at the very end of his career) how to carry the ball without fumbling it all the time, Devin Hester can learn to catch it.
As for route running, how much practice has he had, over how long? He was dedicated to special teams at Miami, so he probably hasn’t had all that much time to be exposed to WR workouts. (Of course, Larry Coker probably relegated him to returns in part to his difficulties on offense back then…)
I’m afraid he’ll have to be transitioned to more WR duty, though, simply because of other teams’ increasing reluctance to kick the ball towards his ZIP code. The Bears will still put him out there deep in the middle of course, to constrict the other team’s kicking game, but he won’t be able to keep racking up these phenomenal return stats as he has for his first 1 1/2 seasons.
But then again, I thought as much before they played the Broncos last Sunday. Good God, Denver fans must’ve been having conniption fits!
Here’s an article on the Giants’ preparations as they gear up to face the Bears, quoting three of the Giants’ special teams players about Hester. Also, Hester’s filmed a Samsung commercial with Giants PK Lawrence Tynes.
I was imagining Todd Sauerbrun having to sneak back into Denver with a coat thrown over his head so people wouldn’t recognize him!
Remember a few weeks ago, when the game announcers were making a joke that teams would rather kick the ball into Lake Michigan than kick it to Hester? They kept showing a football bobbing around in the water.
If he keeps this up, I think you’re exactly right…the Bears will have to figure out some other way to make him useful.
I think he could have value as a Reggie Bush type scat-back. You wouldn’t want him on the field for every offensive play, and you wouldn’t want to limit him to gimmick plays either. He’s greatest asset is his speed an ability to make the first man miss, and I think it should be fairly easy to come up with plays that capitalize on that fact.
The biggest issues however, are a poor conventional running attack and a inconsistent offensive line. Look at how effective Bush was when the Saints could rely on Deuce to get the bulk of the tough yards. Benson is too slow to get to the corner and is simply not a threat catching the ball out of the backfield. Hester could excel at both so long as Benson were able to make the linebackers and ends commit to any inside fake hand-offs. Additionally you could motion him into the slot or flank positions creating a 3-wide receiver look when the defense only has 4 DBs on the field. At that point, you could effectively use him to streak down the field and open up the intermediate passing attack.
The Bears offense is painfully conventional, and with the right personnel this could be a strength. Currently they have too many weaknesses to rely on that though. Conventional offenses absolutely require steady, productive play out of your feature back. Getting steady play from that position would allow them to be creative with Hester while not getting too far out of their comfort zone.
That said, Hester isn’t cut out to be a full time RB or WR. He’s not durable enough or disciplined enough to be counted on to block or run perfect routes and more critically he can;t be expected to read and pick up blitzes or to make a hot read to bail out his QB.
One of the things that gets mentioned on local sports radio all the time is that Hester will never be that great on offense because he needs the field space that kick returns afford him to get up to speed and find a route. He may well prove to be one of the greatest open field players the game has ever seen, but that doesn’t happen too often on offense unless you’re playing a team who’s defense gets shattered by one of the above mentioned trick plays.
Not that the Bears are afraid of pulling stunt plays on occaison either. We tend to use non traditional plays more often than other teams it seems.
I wonder myself if he would be of any use on our punt squad. If he’s that fast and that untouchable how about Rex downs it three times in a row, we kick and Hester goes out and recovers the ball?
Tiki was simply holding the ball wrong. Too low, and too far away from his body, that’s an easy change. Being able to catch a ball reliably, on the move, with a defender waving his arms/ready to flatten you, is not something you can pick up easily.
I like the direct snap approach, or even a pitch out / reverse. Give him some running room and open space, he will make people miss. At the very least, teams will HAVE to cover him tight.
The punt I could have lived with, though of course Sauerbrun was an idiot for putting it right down the center of the field. After that, the kickoff was pretty much inexcusable. And the blocked punt was just painful.
That said, Denver could have easily won the game even so if the defense hadn’t completely collapsed.
Don’t expect any TD returns in the Bears-Giants game tomorrow (having said that, though, anything can happen…). The Giants’ punter is Jeff Feagles, almost twice Devin Hester’s age and very, very good at putting the ball exactly where he wants it. As old pros go, they don’t come much older or wiser. The Feagles-Hester matchup will be must-see TV, to be sure.
Probably the Bears’ best chance at a great kick return would be to have Hester switch jerseys with a teammate (who could have fun strutting around deep back with his hand up to his ear doing the “I can’t hear you” gesture), but I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t be allowed. Pity.
