With everyone, including myself, complaining about Mariani, would you kick the tires on someone like Jeremy Ross?

 

He was averaging 29 yards a return on kickoffs and over 10 on punts. Now obvsiouly he has a problem, otherwise he wouldn't get cut. He fumbles, he had 2 fumbles in the last 3 games. To me you can correct fumbling with practice, but you can't correct Mariani.

 

 

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown...-154300279.html

I don't know if you can correct fumbles. I agree we need to upgrade over Mariani (who is also fumbling) but I don't want to replace him with another turnover machine on special teams. I'd rather we see what this Thompson character can do on our practice squad. All this said, if his fumbles were more great hits, then I could look past that stat.

Ball security is a fundamental and definitely something you can work on.

 

This is surprising:

 

Tyler Lockett - 24.2 KO AVG, 7.8 PR AVG

Marc Mariani - 24.7 KO AVG, 7.2 PR AVG

 

To me that is crazy considering Lockett has returned both a KO and punt for TDs.

With everyone, including myself, complaining about Mariani, would you kick the tires on someone like Jeremy Ross?

 

He was averaging 29 yards a return on kickoffs and over 10 on punts. Now obvsiouly he has a problem, otherwise he wouldn't get cut. He fumbles, he had 2 fumbles in the last 3 games. To me you can correct fumbling with practice, but you can't correct Mariani.

 

 

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown...-154300279.html

 

This team is trying to rebuild and is getting closer to what they want to be. The last thing they need is a player who makes mistakes on a muffed punt or fumble on a return as that kills the momentum the defense is starting to build, takes opportunities away from an offense that needs as many shots at scoring as they can get. Most of us would have been fine with Mariani for the rest of the season if the ball security was there. Since we have that guy making mistakes in Mariani we need to find some alternative.

 

I still think part of the problem delaying the change is that with our WR health being poor we need to rely on Mariani as a WR, however little he contributes, and we won't get that from any new KR/PR. One option could be putting Zach Miller split out more often, instead of Mariani, and try to benefit from the matchups. Given that defenses matchup based on personnel that could put teams in a spot wondering if Miller was out there as FB, TE, or WR. Do they keep 3 LBs on the field or go Nickel given the speed and receiving ability he showed the past two weeks?