Bears Blitz

Published by Jimmy Lobus on September 15, 2010
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

Devin Hester was the most dangerous weapon in the entire NFL in 2006 and 2007 as a kick and punt returner. Everyone in the league would try and figure out ways to kick and punt away from Hester. Now, teams do not have to worry about that. The Chicago Bears took care of that for every team. They tried to make Hester into their number one receiver and took him off full time return duties, a switch that has been proved to be a mistake.

Although Hester is still returning punts; the Bears must move him back to their full time kick and punt returner. He was a threat to score every time a team lined up to punt or kick. Teams would be so scared of what would happen they stopped kicking to him all together. The Bears field position improved immensely because of it. It did not matter how bad the Quarterback was, the offense only needed a handful of yards to be in scoring range. 

The Bears now have a more than capable offense and if they move Hester back to their full time return man there is no question the offense would get better. Jay Cutler targeted Hester only one time in their entire season opening win against Detroit. Compare that with the nine targets to Devin Aromashodu and you can see the discrepancy. Cutler clearly favors throwing to Aromashodu over Hester. 

The Bears logic behind moving Hester to full time receiver made sense. If he was scoring so often while touching the ball a limited amount per game, then imagine how often he could score if he was on the field for the majority of the offensive snaps. However, playing receiver never translated into more scores. In fact, Hester was probably scoring more frequently while just returning punts and kicks than he is as a full time receiver. 

It is obvious that Hester may even prefer a move back to special teams. For the past two years, including Sunday’s game, he is becoming more and more frustrated with not being able to score on punt returns. It is impossible for him to be able to give the full out effort on special teams now that he is a full time receiver. Punt and kick returners need to have no fear and go full speed every time to be effective. That is what made Hester so dangerous. Knowing he is a focal point of the offense, he needs to take it easy on returns.

Moving Hester out of full time receiver duties can give the Bears the special teams advantage they had for two years over every other team. Having him return punts and kicks full time will benefit the team in more ways than just his scoring ability. Just his presence lining up to return is intimidation enough. Teams kick out of bounds on both punts and kicks and give the Bears tremendous field position. 

The receiver experiment was a good idea in theory, but never amounted to anything. Hester was never a full time receiver at any other level. To ask him to transition from a jack-of-all-trades type player to a full time NFL receiver was a lot to ask. It’s been proven over the last two years that Hester is not, and will never be, a number one wide receiver in the NFL. Move him back to what he does best. It will benefit every aspect of the team. He is the biggest special teams scoring threat, maybe ever, and the Bears need him back there to give themselves an advantage they once had over every other team in the league.

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