Redskins Position Group Breakdown – Special Teams
July 27, 2018
by Steve Thomas
We’ve finally come to the end of the seemingly never-ending Position Group Breakdown series, and we intentionally saved special teams for the bitter end right as training camp gets into full swing. Let’s cover this, briefly, so we can all get back to anxiously watching camp roll into its first weekend. This is the “we must get this done because it’s going to bug us if it doesn’t” column.
Placekicker Dustin Hopkins enters his fourth season with the Redskins without any camp competition after last year’s injury fill-in, Nick Rose, was not brought back after Hopkins returned from his torn hip muscle injury in mid-December. Hopkins has made 83.9% of his kicks in three seasons in Washington (73 of 87, long of 54), going 26 for 26 inside 30 yards, 23 of 25 between 30 and 39 yards, 18 of 22 between 40 and 49 yards, and 5 of 13 from 50 or more yards. He is 93 of 98 on extra points. Hopkins 83.9% is second all-time amongst Redskins kickers who have played 20 or more games for the team (which, amazingly, is only 17 kickers). Kai Forbath is first with 87%.
Tress Way is now the unchallenged punter for the 2018 season after the Redskins cut his camp competition, Sam Irwin-Hill, earlier this offseason. Way has averaged 46.2 yards per punt in his four seasons in Washington, which is 10th amongst all punters in the NFL who played at least 48 games between 2014 and 2017.
Nick Sundberg has made a great living for himself as the Redskins long snapper since 2010. He has no competition heading into the 2018 season. Fun fact: in his career, Sundberg has 2 tackles and 2 assisted tackles.
As solid as the Redskins kicking game is, the opposite is true of the punt and kickoff return game. Wide receiver Jamison Crowder has had the punt return job for the last three years, averaging 7.8 yards per punt in 84 returns, with one touchdown. He averaged 6.3 yards per return on 27 returns in 2017. Crowder’s 7.8 yards per return between 2015 and 2017 is ranked 15th of the 25 players who have 40 or more returns over that time frame. However, Crowder’s average was boosted tremendously by his performance in the first half of the 2016, when he was one of the very best returners in the league. Other than that stretch, Crowder’s performance has been sub-optimal, to say the least. He was ranked 26th in average yards per return in 2017 amongst the 32 players who had 15 or more returns last season. The Redskins very clearly made an effort to bring in competition for Crowder this year, bringing in 2 players who are both serious challengers for the job, 7th round pick Greg Stroman and undrafted free agent running back Martez Carter (read my breakdown of Carter here), both of whom have extensive collegiate experience in both punt and kickoff returns. 7th round pick Trey Quinn (read my breakdown of Quinn here) may also be given a shot at the job, as I suspect will anyone with a pulse who has his hand raised when Jay mentions it to the team. This will be a good battle to watch as we head into the heart of training camp.
Several players returned kickoffs for the Redskins last year, with the departed Bashaud Breeland leading the way with 10 returns for 208 yards, for an average of 20.8 yards per return. The Redskins will obviously open up competition for this job, but with the NFL’s continuing effort to deemphasize kickoffs, ostensibly for player safety reasons, kickoff returns become less and less critical every year.
Finally, as a note, the Redskins lost their long-time leader on coverage teams, Niles Paul, and will be looking for new leadership heading into the season. The Redskins punt return coverage was absolutely abysmal in 2017, surrendering 11.2 yards per punt, which was ranked 31st in the league. Their kickoff return coverage was significantly better, giving up only 18.7 yards per return in 2017, which was second-best in the NFL.