Now I know that its preseason still but I am starting to doubt our special teams... again.  One of the pickups this offseason that I was excited about was the hiring of special teams coach Bobby April from the Bills, I thought he was going to fix our special teams problems finally and that the unit was going to be a strong point for our team.  But lets look at the stats for the first 3 preseason games.  

Eagles v. Chiefs 

I thought Demps looked good on his 47 yard return but only had 22 on his other one.  Allen 1 return for 15 yards, no thanks.  McCluster burned us for an average of 37 yards per kick with a long of 41 which cant happen.

Eagles v. Bengals

We allowed two Cincinnati returns for 40 yards, not good.  Chad Hall averaged 2 yards per punt return, sorry Chad hope you make the practice squad.  Also, I'm pretty sure this is the game where Demps got called for interfering with the fair catch for a dumb penalty which can't happen.

We got burned here on kickoff for a 68 yard and a 46 yard return and even if you remove those two returns, Karim and McGee both average close to 30 yards per return.  Nothing good to say about our returns.

All of these stats are copied from ESPN so sorry if the formatting looks a little off.

So is it time to start worrying about Special Teams?  We've been burned for a 40+ yard return in each game so far and gave up a 68 yard return to Jacksonville.  The tackling needs improvement and we have been giving up penalties.  Demps is averaging 26 yards per return in the preseason which isn't terrible but its certainly not great.  Take punt returns with a grains of salt because DeSean will be back there returning punts during the regular season (I don't care if you are worried about him getting injured he has the opportunity to get into the endzone with every return).  Personally, I thought we were gonna get better than this when we signed Bobby April but then again its only the Preseason so hopefully the unit will pick up their game by the time the Packers come to town.

So what do you all think?  Is Special Teams going to continue to be an area of concern this season?

Hey, I'm a phillies fan from south jersey and I'm at school up in Boston at BC.  First off, I am so pumped that the Red Sox got swept out of the playoffs because i'm tired of hearing "Oh would'ya look at those SOX kid, they are goddamn amazing kid, Youuuuukkkk!" and all that bullshit, they suck.  But I digress, me and my roommate are both phillies fans and want to watch friday's game at a bar.  Anybody know of any good bars in boston with a Philly following? 

Alright so I have a question about Mike Bell.  He is a free agent in my fantasy league but I saw he put up good numbers this week, 12 fantasy points, and was wondering if he is worth a look because I'm a little thin at Running Back.  Were this weeks number a fluke or can I expect this every week?  My other running backs are Peterson (hell yea), ray rice, and leon washington

I found this website like a month or so ago that lets you play RISK online its alot of fun I'm practically addicted.  You can play with your friends or with strangers.  Great way to procrastinate at work haha.  Anyone that wants in just click on this link and I'll send you the invite.  It emails you when its your turn so it just takes a few minutes at a time its really fun.  

http://warfish.net/networks/hend20080117163635

Enjoy!

I know that I'm not just speaking for myself when I say that I am fucking pumped for the 2009 season.  We made some great upgrades on the O line in Peters and Stacy Andrews, finally got a fullback in Weaver, picked up some good veteran talent on defense in Sean Jones, Ellis Hobbs, and Rashad Baker.  Then had a monster draft with Maclin, McCoy, and Ingram.  Our team on paper is definitely an improvement from last year's team that made it to the NFC championship game.

But can they play together?

I love the fresh, young talent and the potential for a great team this year but we lost leadership in the offseason with the departure of Dawkins, and Runyan.  Who is gonna fill those leadership roles?  Sheldon Brown is unhappy about his contract and has the potential to influence some of our new players negatively, and I doubt that we trade him at this point.  Donovan voiced his feelings about his contract earlier in the offseason but with what we've done in free agency to upgrade our offense can't imagine he is still upset.  

So what do you think?  Who is gonna step up and be our offensive and defensive leaders?