Bobby April

[justasportsfan]

I miss the guy. Watching our ST so far makes me miss Danny Smith , the ST coach who sucked under Greghead Williams who is now the redskins ST. :ill:

I hope it gets better.

[T-Long]

What I am confused about it how these guys can't be successful. Break out the tape and see what Bobby April did with his special teams over the years. Take notes and then implement them yourself. It seriously can't be rocket science. Trying to mimmick an offense or defense obviously is a different story, but you are just looking at kickoff and kick returns.

[Pride]

I think the issue is that we have so many young guys, that the coaches are swapping in players left and right to see who they are going to keep. I don't know that these guys are used to playing with one another a whole lot.

[justasportsfan]

what I am seeing so far is exactly what happned in the Music City Miracle. Coverage breakdown.

[Night Train]

I hope so too but I've seen this before with all the ST shuffling of guys who will be cut before the opener. Then the season starts and the coverage is actually decent.

Grade = Incomplete. To be continued.

[justasportsfan]

I hope so too but I've seen this before with all the ST shuffling of guys who will be cut before the opener. Then the season starts and the coverage is actually decent.

Grade = Incomplete. To be continued.

I agree. Grade icomplete. Thing is, Aprils coverage unit didn't have this much breakdowns. HIs system worked no matter who was in there.

[Jaybird]

The trick to Special teams in maintaining your lanes.. You cant all go sworm to the ball... I see this happening on every return. It must be the constant rotation of players

[ServoBillieves]

"All right you 5, set up your wedge in front of Leodis on this one alright?"

Coach we can't do that anymore

"Alright, you 4 then."

[trapezeus]

i'm going to hold out hope that once we are down to our 53 roster, that ST gets some more emphasis for the guys who no longer have hope of cracking the top O and D units. They gel as a unit later than the O and D.

It sucks to not have the top rated unit, but again, i'll sacrifice that for the time being to just have an entertaining game where we actually think that we might win the game.

[chernobylwraiths]

I miss the guy. Watching our ST so far makes me miss Danny Smith , the ST coach who sucked under Greghead Williams who is now the redskins ST. :ill:

I hope it gets better.

Wasn't Danny Smith the special teams coach under Wade Phillips? Didn't Danny Smith replace Bruce Dehaven after "forward lateral"? Didn't Phillips get fired because he refused to fire Danny Smith?

[justasportsfan]

Wasn't Danny Smith the special teams coach under Wade Phillips? Didn't Danny Smith replace Bruce Dehaven after "forward lateral"? Didn't Phillips get fired because he refused to fire Danny Smith?

Bruce dehaven was the ST coach in the Music city miracle. Refused to fire Ronnie Jones.
Danny Smith st coach ubder Greg 2001-03

[stuckincincy]

The trick to Special teams in maintaining your lanes.. You cant all go sworm to the ball... I see this happening on every return. It must be the constant rotation of players

I wonder how much last season's rule change - no more 3 man wedges - affected the Bills' STs? I don't have a shred of evidence either way.

They have been tops for so many years - perhaps it's just time for their prowess to wane a bit. I honestly don't know.

[TMu11]

According to 103.3 the Edge (Radio Station for those not familiar) April was always able to convince Management to keep players on the roster for ST specifically, which is usually not done by other coaches. He was able to have his pick of talent, rather than whatever was left.

[stuckincincy]

According to 103.3 the Edge (Radio Station for those not familiar) April was always able to convince Management to keep players on the roster for ST specifically, which is usually not done by other coaches. He was able to have his pick of talent, rather than whatever was left.

IIRC, April left STL because then-HC Martz put ST on the back burner and wouldn't let April staff it properly.

[Jan Reimers]

Bruce Dehaven was certainly a good ST coach for us for many years, and probably gets too much blame for the coverage breakdown that led to the Music City Forward Lateral. I doubt that he has forgotten how to coach.

I think that once the final roster is set, and he knows what he has to work with, our coverage will get better.

[justasportsfan]

I hope thats the case Jan.

[madness]

Bruce Dehaven was certainly a good ST coach for us for many years, and probably gets too much blame for the coverage breakdown that led to the Music City Forward Lateral. I doubt that he has forgotten how to coach.

I think that once the final roster is set, and he knows what he has to work with, our coverage will get better.

Absolutely. A handful of guys on ST right now won't even make the team just as some of our ST aces haven't even lined up on ST due to the same reason.

[chernobylwraiths]

Bruce dehaven was the ST coach in the Music city miracle. Refused to fire Ronnie Jones.
Danny Smith st coach ubder Greg 2001-03

sorry, my bad

[chernobylwraiths]

Bruce Dehaven was certainly a good ST coach for us for many years, and probably gets too much blame for the coverage breakdown that led to the Music City Forward Lateral. I doubt that he has forgotten how to coach.

I think that once the final roster is set, and he knows what he has to work with, our coverage will get better.

Not to say that Bruce wasn't a good ST coach, but he did have Steve Tasker and Mark Pike for many of those years and a head coach who felt it was necessary to keep a few players just for special teams. That is why April's special teams did well too.

[better days]

I think the rules changes last year really affected Aprils system & he has of yet to come up with something new. Lets see how the Eagles special teams do this year.

[ferg2butler]

I suspect special teams coaching is more about motivation and a little less about schemes. Just judging by the fact most special teams coaches seem to be big personality types. Does not necessarily apply to DeHaven, but age could affect a person's ability in that area IMHO