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“We felt like we needed to improve in the punt game, not just in punting the football but in covering,” said Dickenson, who moonlights as the special-teams co-ordinator.

“That was an issue we talked with Josh about last year. We needed him to do a better job of getting downfield and tackling. But then we looked at the whole punt team as a group and we felt like if we could improve the punting just a little bit, we had a pretty good group there.

“So then when Jon became available, he’s an outstanding player. We felt like he’d improve our overall punt game, so that’s why we went after him.”

Bartel’s low punting averages were also considered by the Roughriders’ brass.

“That’s on me a little bit, to be quite honest, because we didn’t ask him to bomb it,” Dickenson said. “But the net punt is the key stat. With the fact that we were so low, we had to figure out a way to improve that. The punter was one area where we felt we could do it.”

Photo by BRYAN SCHLOSSER / Regina Leader-Post

CKRM’s Derek Taylor, a statistical maven, was quick to note that the 2018 Roughriders were prone to allowing punt-return touchdowns — a league-worst four, in fact.

“I agree with you,” Dickenson said, “and then the flip side of that is if (the punter) sticks his nose in there and makes a tackle, he also allows other players to get in there.”

The Roughriders’ template was set, perhaps for all time, in 2007 when Jamie Boreham punted for Saskatchewan. A punishing tackler, he levelled many a rival punt returner.

“We’ve done a lot of research,” Dickenson noted. “The teams that traditionally have the best net punting average, they’ve got their punter up there that saves the day probably two or three times. Instead of it being 80 for a touchdown, it’s a 30-yard return.

“If you can get your punter to stay involved and stop the big one, it makes a big difference, so we feel like we’ve got to do a better job of that.”

Reducing the use of the punter wouldn’t hurt, either.

rvanstone@postmedia.com

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