Special Teams - Roll Call in the Bye Week

Yesterday, I wrote a long piece breaking down Matt Cassel that seemed to be of interest to a large percentage of our audience.  QB talk always interests a very large group of football fans so I enjoyed writing that and getting all of your feedback.

Today, though, I am going to try something completely different.

You see, I am a great lover of the NFL game.  I love the game day discussions that go all the way to the last man on the bench.  46 man rosters on Sunday.  7 inactive players.  Who are those players and what is the team trying to tell us?

Injuries.  Signees.  Every Sunday, the pieces are moving to try to figure out who is doing what.

Surely, you know that the Average NFL team has about 65 snaps a game on offense and defense to account for.  But, you might not realize there are 30 more plays a game where the team has to perform at a top level.  Special teams.

30 plays a game!  It is true.  I have written about this several other times if you would like to catch up.

But, today, in this bye week, I wanted to give you an update on how Rich Bisaccia is using his special teams pieces.  During this time, I like to take roll call to see who is where.

If you look at this, perhaps when you are watching a game, you will know who is making the big play  on special teams.

First, Kickoff cover.

According to the NFL stats, the Cowboys rank 24th in the league on covering kicks, allowing 26 yards a return.  What they don't tell you is that the Cowboys have only faced 3 kick returns this year because of all of the touchbacks.  That means only 1 team has allowed fewer total yards on kick returns than the Cowboys 78.  They don't get tested much, but here is a chart for who plays where on the kick coverage.

Special Teams - Kickoff Cover

Wk	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	K	L5	L4	L3	L2	L1
NY	27	25	52	38	52	5	51	23	40	26	42
PH	42	31	52	27	25	5	51	38	40	23	26
AT	27	25	57	38	23	5	52	31	40	26	42
NO	27	25	57	38	52	5	51	23	40	26	42
NE	42	26	40	23	52	5	51	38	57	31	27

You are likely going to want this roster if you don't have everyone's jersey numbers memorized.

Now, punt coverage.  The Cowboys are right at league average on both total yards and average yards per punt return.  Here is that group that has pretty much stayed the same all year.

Special Teams - Punt Cover

Wk	P	PP	RW	LW	RE	LE	RT	RG	C	LG	LT
NY	6	38	89	40	25	23	56	51	91	57	52
PH	6	38	89	40	25	23	56	51	91	57	52
AT	6	38	89	40	23	31	56	51	91	57	52
NO	6	38	89	40	23	31	56	51	91	57	52
NE	6	38	89	40	31	23	59	51	91	57	52

Now, this is where the Cowboys need to be better.  The kick return unit has not been good, and I assume losing Lance Dunbar won't help.  That said, they weren't getting much done with him out there and his injury did occur on an ill-advised kick return.

The Cowboys have very poor starting field position, and kick returns help determine that to some extent.  23.4 is the league average and you get 20 yards by not even trying.  So, the fact that the Cowboys are 21.6 is splitting the difference between average and not trying.  This group could stand for some improvement.

Special Teams - Kickoff Return

Wk	RE	RT	RG	LG	LT	LE	RW	LW	S	KR2	KR
NY	40	56	52	89	57	38	51	97	44	26	25
PH	40	56	52	89	57	38	51	97	44	26	25
AT	40	56	52	89	57	38	51	93	44	26	25
NO	40	56	52	89	57	38	51	93	44	26	25
NE	40	59	52	89	57	38	51	87	44	26	13

And finally, punt returns.  This is where Dwayne Harris has been good over the years and now he is gone so the Cowboys were going to teach Cole Beasley how to do it.  He looked quite able to do so in training camp, but in the first 5 weeks of the regular season, we have not been very impressed with the punt returns.

In fact, they rank 31st in the league with 3.5 yards a return - this in a league where the average punt return is 9.5 yards.  So 31st in average and 31st in total return yards from this group.

However, they did block a punt in Philadelphia (and ran it in for a TD) that might have won the game, so all is not lost from this group.

Special Teams - Punt Return

Wk	LDE	LDT	RB	LB	RDT	RDE	S	S	LCB	RCB	PR
NY	51	57	89	31	52	27	38	42	26	40	11
PH	51	40	57	58	52	27	38	42	26	23	11
AT	51	57	31	40	52	27	38	42	26	23	11
NO	51	40	31	58	52	27	38	42	26	23	11
NE	51	57	89	40	52	27	38	42	31	23	11

Often, at the end of a piece I write, people want a nice conclusion.  This one is more of a reference piece that you might want to bookmark for when you are enjoying games.

For me, I use it to see who is being used heavily without being all over the boxscore.  These are vital moments in every game.  Ask the Colts or Michigan or the Longhorns about whether special teams can make or break a game or a season for you.

Also, if a team uses 15 or so players on offense and 15 or so on defense, you can see how the team chooses the rest of the game day roster.  A kicker, a backup QB, a punter, and a long snapper grab 4 spots.  So, the other 12 go to these numbers listed above.  These are your special teams guys: 

Jeff Heath, Danny McCray, Damien Wilson, Tyler Patmon, Corey White, Andrew Gachkar, Kyle Wilber, and then the guys who never get to rest - the safeties Barry Church and JJ Wilcox.  

Anyway, I normally put all of this in a notebook, but I thought somebody might enjoy knowing all of this football game-day minutia.  

Do Not Forget About Special Teams - Part 1

This certainly has a chance to set records for readership.  In the wrong direction.  I have noticed that talking about special teams is the perfect way to get people to stop reading what you are writing, because who wants to hear about special teams?  How boring a topic can you possibly cover on a Cowboys blog?

But, if you actually go to a NFL training camp and visit with actual personnel people and coaches, the topic repeatedly comes back to special teams.  In fact, a few times a week, you can witness with your own eyes entire practices that are dedicated to the fine art of special teams.  Covering punts, getting punts off without getting them blocked, kickoffs, kickoff coverages, field goals under duress, and of course, onside kicks.  Coaches know that the quality of your special teams can often determine the difference between winning and losing, playoffs or not.  And yet, the media and fans hardly ever mention special teams.  Your average fan may have no idea who plays on special teams beyond the kicker and the return man.  In the college game, it is not nearly as stressful because there are no roster limits.  But, in the NFL, this is a real issue for coaches - especially the special teams coach.

NFL teams have just put pen to paper.  In a NFL season, a normal number of snaps for the offense or the defense each to face is usually between 1,000-1,100.  This ranges between about 62-68 snaps per game.  In the current era of the NFL, this is about normal.  But, how about special teams?  What would you guess?  200?  12 special teams snaps per game?  Does that sound right?

Not even close.  On average, in the last 4 seasons, the Cowboys have taken 456 special teams snaps per season.  That equates to almost 30 snaps per game!  If the offense and defense average about 65 snaps each, who would imagine that the special teams can impact 30?  Well, it is true.

Here is a chart from the last 4 years to show you how that all breaks down:

Year	FGA	OppFGA	X PT	OppXPT	Punts	OppPunts	Kickoffs	OppKickoffs	Total ST Plays
2014	29	18	56	41	58	67	96	75	440
2013	30	29	47	48	77	61	91	89	472
2012	31	33	37	44	69	74	79	88	455
2011	37	33	39	35	71	72	86	86	459
Yr Avg	31.7	28.2	44.7	42	68.7	68.5	88	84.5	456.5

Above, you can find the 6 components of special teams.  The field goal unit, field goal block (both also handle extra points, of course), the punt coverage, punt return, kickoff coverage, and kick return units.

You can certainly see that during the course of a season, there are many opportunities for the special teams to let you down.  And unlike your offense and defense, this is where you generally have dedicated almost no money or premium talent to fix.  Often, special teams are made up of players making the NFL minimum and many times are completely undrafted.  It is the NFL's lower class. If your offense gives you issues, chances are pretty good that you will throw millions and millions to fix the problem in the spring.  But, if your special teams is a disaster, you almost never do more than fire your special teams coach.  Every offseason, many of these coaches are switched out, but make no mistake - they have a very difficult job to do in today's NFL.

Let's walk through this exercise for Cowboys special teams coach Rich Bisaccia.  So, there are 46 players on the roster on Sunday, but when it comes to special teams, he literally has almost nobody to choose from.  Once you subtract off the special teams the "starters" - key players who already have 60 snaps on their plate on offense or defense - and guys who are not very good fits - offensive linemen are not very good choices for covering kickoffs - you are left with seeds and stems with which to choose your coverage units.

Take the Green Bay Playoff game and then let's just look at the kickoff team.  Remember, Rich Bisaccia does this with all of his teams, but let's just do one today.

Here is the roster that day in Green Bay (using the Ourlads depth chart from last January):

The line through the name indicated a player who is either not dressed (injured or healthy scratch) or listed somewhere else on the chart.  The arrows indicate players who are likely off limits.  The leftovers - guys with no marks - are the players which the special teams coach can choose from to name his 10-man coverage unit (Dan Bailey is the 11th, of course).

So, while I am guessing here, I assume Bisaccia had the following players to choose from for his group: Street, Beasley, Harris, Hanna, Dunbar, Randle, Clutts, Escobar, Lawrence, Lawrence, Wilber, Hitchens, Watson, Moore, Heath, Patmon, Spillman, and Wilcox.  It is possible that Beasley, D Lawrence, and Hitchens were off limits, too, given the amount of time they were getting on offense and defense, respectively.

In the end, he had about 15 names to find 10.  Here were his choices to make sure Randall Cobb didn't return any touchdowns in that playoff game:

So, they want fast players who have mobility.  So, if you are on either line, you are not a candidate.  If you are in the lineup at all, you likely are not a candidate (JJ Wilcox is the one exception), and otherwise, all RBs, TE, DBs, and LBs, seem to be the group with WR Dwayne Harris the one exception because he was basically on the team because he was a special teams terror.

Now, let's go back to the moment where an offensive coordinator, head coach, and special teams coach get into a spirited debate about whether so-and-so can cover kicks and this idea that he might be placed "off limits" by the coaching staff.

Well, this is the fine balance life of a special teams coach.  If you want him to have success, you must give him the proper tools to do so.  But, you also know that if Dez Bryant is hurt on special teams, you will never forgive yourself.  So, it is this constant tug-of-war to properly prioritize the special teams with practice time and the proper troops so that you don't have to do it after a disaster and have the special teams coach trying to cover his rear by telling the rest of the staff that "this is why I asked for better players covering kicks!"  It has happened many times in coaching meetings.

So, it needs to be a staff-wide priority to make sure that this team is not sabotaged by a punt return or punt block that ruins a game or a season.  And to do that, you need a head coach who gets it (often because he was burned a few times along the way in his career by substandard special teams).  Like I said earlier, this is also true in the college game, but with massive rosters, it is never this pinched.  In college, you can literally have a coverage unit and not use anyone who will play a snap on defense if you want.  In the pros, with a really short bench, the coach might only have 12 or 13 players to use midway through a game (due to injuries or fatigue) to cover a punt.  That is when the fingernails are bitten.

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In this special teams series, I want to do 2 things.  1) - track who is playing on which special teams unit in the preseason.  Trust me, as we try to figure out who makes the team, you can learn a ton from the coaches and how they deploy troops in the preseason.  Tony Romo won't play much, but you can bet the preseason is where the Cowboys coaches are determining the final few spots of their roster based on this very topic: Can this guy play all of the special teams?  Can he give us 300 special teams snaps?  If so, he has a real chance to be one of those guys.  And 2) - attempt to give us all a better understanding of the roles on the back of the roster and which types of players Rich Bisaccia is looking for when he puts a punt team not the field.  One week I will do kickoffs and kick returns, the next week field goals, and the final week, punts.

Special teams is never given any love in the press unless someone is writing about how awesome Dan Bailey is as a kicker.  Well, I will change that here in the few weeks until the season starts.  I know some of you will not even consider reading about special teams and that is ok.  But, if you have always been curious about this vital portion of the roster, then follow along and I will attempt to define how a NFL team tries to approach those 450 snaps a year.