[FREE] The Titans & The New Kick Return

The New tKickoff Return rules could create a headache for the Tennessee Titans

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In the past, talks about kick returners would be labeled as “boring”.

Not because people hate the play obviously, but because the traditional kickoff had been something like poison to the traditional kick return.

Kickoffs had been moved up to the 35 yard line, touchbacks were up by a significant amount, and rule changes — to make the play safer — had eliminated some of the previous norms that allowed kick returns to flourish at times.

Because of all these changes, kickoffs felt more like a necessary opening sequence for the sake of appearance.

This made the kick returner job feel obsolete and kind of made their job solely reliable on their versatility as a punt returner, if they even got that job along with the kick returner spot.

However, things are changing to where the kick return and the job itself won’t feel like a waste of time and space.

As we all know, the NFL adopted new kickoff rules that are going to make the kickoff useful and potentially the most exciting its been in a very long time.

In case you need a refresher, the new kickoff is going to look like this.

(via Pardon My Take)

If you’ve watched the XFL/UFL over the years, then you’re familiar with the change.

Basically, this change encourages returns, and more so punishes teams for not allowing returns.

It’s a give and take relationship basically.

With this change now in place, teams — especially ones that can’t create explosive plays the normal way or can’t create them consistently — will finally have an extra tool to potentially increase their all around explosiveness.

For the Titans, they fall into this specific description. They’ve improved their offense across the board, but as we’re in June, we still don’t know just how improved they’ll be offensively.

Chances are they’ll be better, with a better roster and a perceived jump in play from Will Levis.

But we don’t know for sure.

Which is why it’s important that the Titans find some sort of formula on special teams, more so on kick return, as it’ll now be the most important aspect on special teams in terms of changing games in an instant.

But in order for the Titans to take advantage of this swift change, they’ll need a kick returner.

Which…they kind of don’t have right now?

The Mainstays

However, deciding on the final guy won’t be difficult because of a lack of options.

Especially when it comes to the guys that have been on this roster before. Eric Garror, Kearis Jackson, Mason Kinsey, Tyjae Spears, and Kyle Phillips all have some form of return experience and have gotten it during their times as Titans.

Granted, none of these options feel exciting in any way, so choosing one from this group feels like conceding.

Well except Tyjae Spears, who had some bright moments as a returner last year. If you were to pick one out of the roster mainstays, then Spears should be your guy, unless you’re some drugged up fiend who gets excitement out of throwing darts at the board and hoping one sticks.

Treylon Burks is another mainstay that has gotten some looks in OTAs, but that’s a new thing that quite frankly, has a lot of questions associated with it.

But if the team doesn’t want any of the mainstays to return kicks, then there’s some newcomers who have experience and could bring some juice.

The Newcomers

Of the additions the Titans made offensively this off-season, a couple of those have kickoff experience, either as a pro or at the collegiate level.

Tony Pollard has experience returning kicks and he’s done good work there, both in college and during his time with the Cowboys.

It truly depends on how much the Titans want to expose Pollard to special teams contact, dependent on his role offensively of course. Pollard himself has said that he loves the new rule, but if the Titans want to heavily lean on him offensively, who knows what’ll happen.

The other newcomer is rookie Jha’Quan Jackson. Jackson has precious return experience at Tulane and looks to be in the running for the starting job as well.

The intrigue with Jackson is the fact that he does possess some real speed that has been shown to be plenty useful in the past, combine that with the return experience and there’s potentially something there.

What kind of throws you off though, is his pretty slight frame at 188 pounds, which might not survive the beating a return man can receive throughout the season, especially with the new rule which encourages returns.

But there’s some interest there.

Overview

While we don’t know who’ll take the starting kick return job, it’s comforting to know that options exist, including some good ones that have some attributes ready made for the position, along with some experience that proves their worth there.

Early favorites for the job could run along the lines of Pollard and Spears, as they’re the ones that have proven the most both in the distant past and recent past.

Those should be the first two you want back there, if you’re chalking down your own personal favorites.

Some others you could want are Jha’Quan Jackson and maybe Burks, because of the experience and the physicality Burks could relatively bring.

Aside from that, the others mentioned — like Kinsey, Kearis Jackson, Garror, etc. — don’t really bring anything special to the table.

Of course this battle will lead into training camp and maybe the preseason, depending on who the staff chooses and their previous experience.

Whoever it’ll be though, the decision has to be well thought out. Because the kick return is now once again, a very important aspect of the game you have to prepare for.

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