While special teams can often feel like a forgotten aspect of the NFL, most teams, including the Panthers, don’t think that’s the case. At the start of every training camp practice this summer, the team would begin with special teams drills to ensure the players recognize the importance of the third component of the game. What some fans might see as an opportunity to grab a beer, the Panthers’ coaches see it as a crucial part of the matchup that they are constantly working on in practice. However, the Panthers kick return game is still waiting to reap the rewards of their hard work.

While the 2017 preseason kickoff return numbers have been poor (18.4 yards per return), they are merely part of an overarching, ongoing issue. Since 2004, the Panthers have scored just two return touchdowns; ranking last in the NFL. During that span, fifteen teams have reached double-digits while the Bears and Vikings have over twenty. The Panthers haven’t just been bad, they have been awful and they’re not trending upwards; they finished last in kick return average once again this preseason.

In order to discover why this is the case, this article will examine what makes for a successful return and where the Panthers are falling short.

A Touchback is Not a Loss

The Panthers’ ranked slightly above average under new coordinator Thomas McGaughey last season after spending four seasons in the bottom ten and ranking last in 2015. However, there still remains room for improvement and that begins with taking what the kicking team gives you.

With touchbacks placing teams at the 25, there is limited incentive to return kicks when they reach the endzone. While good return teams can justify returning kicks a couple of yards deep, kicks that travel deeper than that should simply be left for a touchback. On the following return, the Panthers manage a reasonable gain but, as they started so far back, the play was still a net loss.

If the “Do your job” motto is applied here, then the job is ultimately to give your team the best starting field position. During the preseason, the Panthers contributed to their poor numbers by returning some kicks out of the endzone in order to test the returners, and obviously this to continue into the regular season. But how can the Panthers be successful when they look to take the ball out; and how does this compare to what they have been doing?

One Defender, One Blocker

The mathematics of kick returns are really quite simple: there are ten defenders and ten blockers and the return man is tasked with beating the kicker. While the concept of each blocker blocking a defender apiece is very simple, there are several ways in which it can break down. But first, let’s see what it looks like when done well.

Here, the Panthers are able to block the defenders to a reasonable degree and the return man is able to beat the kicker. While the touchdown is prevented by a backside defender, this is still a very positive play. However, what can sometimes happen is that multiple blockers block the same defender.

Here, Tolbert and Dickson are tasked with blocking the centermost two defenders who run a stunt, and the failure to communicate leads to both of them blocking the inside defender; this allows the outside defender to make the tackle.

This can be especially problematic when a front-level blocker loses his man, as in the play below, and chases him back to the returner. Here, Jeremy Cash (57) needs to trust the second level blockers to pick-up the free rusher and move on to an unblocked defender.

This was an issue during the preseason, such as on the following two plays. First, Manhertz and Van Roten don’t communicate and both look to block the first defender, allowing a second defender to run free at the returner. On the second, Armah and Obada both take the outside defender leaving the inside defender completely unblocked.

The requisite communication requires trust, practice and experience; things that come with repetition. Injuries forced the Panthers to mix-and-match with special teams personnel last season, something that hopefully will not be the case again. As both of these preseason plays involved inexperienced players, there should be some hope that this is an area that can be fixed.

Having A Plan

While an ideal return involves each blocker locating a defender and blocking him, defenders are very rarely equally distributed and kicks are often targeted to the corners in order to aid kick coverage. To counter this, return teams need to be organised in looking to gather in front of the ball carrier to create a seam. When done well it can look something like this:

However, what happened far too often last season was that the Panthers failed to organize in this way, having no plan to generate a seam. At times it looked as if the Panthers had never practiced a kick return or bothered to talk about what to do, such as on the following play.

Plays like this are how you end up last in kick return yardage, yet are fairly easy to fix with coaching. There was one example of this during the preseason (shown below), where the returners look to create a central seam on a kick that went right. At least there was an attempt to create a focused seam, but the failure to adapt to the change in kick location is something that will need to be fixed.

Execution

Even if a return gets as far as every blocker correctly identifying their defender, it still remains for those blockers to execute their blocks. Of course, blocks will be missed, but consistent issues shouldn’t be expected.

The above play is a good example of a blocker simply being beaten by a defender, Griffin (22) shows decent technique in staying square and decent hand position, but is unable to sustain the block. By contrast, the following play is an example of a blocker, Tolbert (35), simply being lazy with his technique. He fails to use his hands and simply lowers his shoulder, allowing the defender to easily side-step him. Tolbert should absolutely know better, and the responsibility lies solely with him, but many special teams players are not expected to block as part of their position, and examples of poor technique on their part could well be due to insufficient coaching.

While this was an issue in the preseason, see play below, it was mostly an issue with younger defensive players such as Hall (74). Given his youth and inexperience there should be a reasonable expectation of improvement, even if the standard shown in the preseason was poor.

Personal Responsibility

As much as scheme and technique can help, the end product relies heavily on the ability of individual blockers to perform their job and the effort they put in to perform this job. On many of the unsuccessful returns last season the route cause was simply a defender failing to even begin to do this.

Joe Webb and Michael Griffin were particular culprits in this regard, though for quite different reasons. Webb was mostly used as the lead blocker for the returner in a split formation, where whichever of the two deep mean doesn’t return the kick is tasked with acting as a lead blocker for the other.

Webb showed little aptitude for this role, often failing to properly communicate with his fellow deep-man, as on the play above, as well as showing an inability to consistently locate defenders as a lead blocker. On the following play, Webb seems unsure as to who he should be blocking while getting in the way of the returner. This play could easily have gone for a touchdown had Webb been able to find his block.

Contrastingly, Griffin’s issues seem to stem from a lack of effort. On both of the following plays, he simply floats across the field without even beginning to block a defender. In the first play, he almost has to actively dodge one in order not to make a block.

There is an argument to be had as to whether some of this lack of motivation should be blamed on coaching, but it is hard to argue that a significant chunk of it should not rest with the blocker himself.

Neither Webb nor Griffin are currently on the Panthers’ roster, and this section should not be seen as simply an attack on them, but rather as evidence to the idea that special teams really is a lot about effort and commitment. If players are willing to put in the work to understand their role on special teams and the effort to make their blocks where and when required then that goes a long way to making a successful return unit.

You Can Lead a Horse to Water…..

Even once a seam has been created and blocks are able to be maintained, it still remains for the returner to be able to recognize the open lane. While this was not a major issue last season, there were still times when Ginn simply ignored the seam, as on the play below. At the end of the day, some of the responsibility must lie with the returner.

So What Needs to Change?

It is hard to build a complete picture during the preseason due to the interchanging of personnel and the lack of consistency, but there is certainly plenty of room from improvement. Until the regular season starts it is impossible to tell exactly how far the Panthers have come in fixing these issues, but should the kick return unit falter once again then this article should explain how and why. However, if you are looking for a reason to be optimistic about the Panthers kick return unit, Curtis Samuel might be it.

See the seam. Hit the seam.