I think they’re waiting for Devon Smith to get his hands together. He’s still young, and no one got a clean hit on him during his time out on the field. Given how much time Smith has seen I bet we’ll see him midway through the season. Just a hunch.

You’re right, this whole punt return thing is over blown. The coverage guys are the ones that take the big punishment.

im sure royster is smart enough to fair catch the ball unless he has an obvious opportunity to return the ball.

I hate this argument that you can’t put your best player back there to return a punt. Get the ball in the hands of your play makers I say. But more important than anything, make sure you put a guy there that you can count on to catch the ball. I can’t think of any player ever getting knocked out of the game from taking a hit on a punt return.

Sean Lee and Mike Mauti tore up their knees just making a cut in open space. Same thing with Matt Hahn. I’ll say it again. I’m more worried about Royster getting his ankle twisted on the bottom of a pile after a three yard gain than I am of him taking a shot on a punt return.

There has to be SOMEONE out there who can field punts, and even if they’re not as good returning, as long as they don’t fumble it, I’m fine. Unless you have one of those electric returners out there, you’re not gonna see much more than a 5-10 yard average difference out there, anyway, so why risk it with a guy not known for his durability?

I’m fine with this, as long as Royster doesn’t get hurt, but if that happens, there will be a lot of hindsight “we shouldn’t have taken the risk”, when right now we have the foresight, and are ignoring it.

I just don’t. And I won’t(well ok, if he breaks a big one or something maybe I will).

I said before, you often see WR’s and backup TB’s returning kicks b/c you want to get those types of players the ball more often that is typically possible. In the case of a starting TB, you have the option and even the obligation of handing him the ball 20 times a game anyway.

I think Joe’s admitted openly he’s willing to sacrifice 5 carries of Royster for the punt returns. This is extremely interesting to me, b/c Royster averages over 6 yards a carry — so what Joe is effectively saying is that he trusts Royster to return more than 30 yards in punts a game…

The whole thing isn’t such a big deal to me, it just seems like a round-about-way of getting your TB the ball instead of just handing it off to him. Does that say something about our run game this year? Does it say Royster’s talent exceeds the limitations of a TB? Is this just filling time before they can trust Green or Smith?

My opinion is that Royster’s a fantastic football player, though he is not the most durable tailback. Hall wants to keep Royster fresh and healthy and so they are trading some tough-running between the tackles for punt returns and receiving work.

You will want him trying out for the Lacrosse team.

I think the problem everyone is having is that our confidence is shaky at best in our second RB option. If Beachum turns out to get more snaps and is a stud I don’t think you will hear any complaints about using Royster. I don’t mind him doing the job, but I would like to see a better RB backup if he goes down for any reason.

Beechum, Green, Carter, etc…they are all capable of playing at this level.

I love ER as a RB but not sure if he is a gamebreaker returning punts, but I trust in Joe.

i would want Royster as fresh as possible on first and ten. punts take a LOT out of you. i’d love to see a stat from the Akron game that showed royster’s ypc on his forst carry after a punt return. i may be way wrong

I’d say LJ

It’s not as though there were obvious situations where a player would start to run back his punts in that game. The punter never outkicked his coverage, and his short punts still had plenty of hang time.

If you want to argue that Royster doesn’t belong as PR, I wouldn’t say that he needs to be protected from injury. I would argue that he protects himself and plays conservatively as a result. I’m OK with it, but if you want to see more returns, put in a guy who’s a bit more reckless. It’s risk/reward.

Not the word I’d use for Royster. Vision, balance, patience, yes, but not explosive.

I wouldn’t have a problem with him fielding punts in big games, because I agree that his hands are the best. I also could advocate him in the role of the <50 PR in the >50/<50 punt returner model that they’ve featured the past few years.

But, for the most part I would prefer him to remain fresh and not to risk injury. Seems like there are so many other guys to use for this.

Would there be any interest in an open thread. I don’t like other blogs.

So Anthony Scirrotto was our best option at returning punts last year?