So what about Bruce DeHaven?

[ghz in pittsburgh]

ST is noticeably worse this year. Worse yet, they seemed to show no improvement from the 1st pre-season game.

By all accounts, they were praticing a lot of ST in camp per Buffalo standard. Are we going back Wade Philips' "Special team plays are just a defensive play" attitude?

[RockStar36]

I think they will improve over time.

We were spoiled with Bobby April to some extent, or at least spoiled with having the best in the league.

I'm willing to trade off and have a decent ST unit though if it means the offense and defense make more plays.

Just having the best ST in the league does nothing for me anymore.

[trapezeus]

we kept corto, stamer, 9 punt returners, guys too small to be linebackers, too slow to be safeties in the #1 ST days.

our defenses paid a price when injuries came up.

Now seem to want to have some solid offense and solid defense and get depth and then plug and play the extras on ST. i'll take that philosphy any day of the week than having to see Costanzo on our team or being sold that ellison is truly a great linebacker.

Yes, you can keep one or two ST studs like a Pike and Tasker, but building a 53 man roster around trying to be the best ST unit was a disaster...much like every thought jauron ever had.

[mayotm]

I just posted this in another thread as an explanation for the poor special teams play thus far:

There's no arguing that the special teams have been bad. That stated, I think special teams is the most difficult part to judge during pre-season. More than the offense and defense, the special teams are flooded with players that won't be on the roster. I don't think we've seen much yet of the players that will actually be on the special teams during the regular season. It's the reason we see so many more returns for TD's league wide during the pre-season. Again, I'm not defedning the the poor play, just offering an explanation.

[Jan Reimers]

we kept corto, stamer, 9 punt returners, guys too small to be linebackers, too slow to be safeties in the #1 ST days.

And we need to keep Corto this season. He is currently injured, which really hurts our coverage teams.

[madness]

I agree, you can't judge ST during preseason.

[justasportsfan]

looked like a disaster but I'm hoping that it's because DeHaven was mixing the line up and seeing who he should keep or use. I hope he got on Parrish's face. The guy was lucky he didn't get clocked.