Toub Tells Why Tillman Was On Special Teams..............

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Originally Posted by JustAnotherBearsFan99

That's another good point. Every season we're told we're keeping guys on the roster just because they are ST's guys who Toub wants. Let Toub play with his own toys, and keep away from key starters who we need to win games. I'm all for having a solid ST unit. But you CAN go overboard with this and jeopardize your season if you lose a key starter for stupid reasons.

I'll be honest here. If we would lose a Pro Bowl CB due to a stupid special teams injury I'd be livid angry. We exist in a division where it is "mission critical" to have rock-solid CB's on the field.

Otherwise Green Bay and Detroit will eat us alive.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand you don't put Pro Bowl players on special teams. Can you imagine losing Brandon Marshall, Peppers, Urlacher, Tillman or any of our best players due to this?

Crazy.

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"Crazy" would be if the rate of injury make the risk/return impossibly high. This is the corner on the punt return team though, the the kickoff (either side) where the true "suicide squad" members live. Does anybody know if the punt return guys (other than the PR himself) are any more or less liable to injuries than CBs in normal football? In both cases you got guys sprinting around throwing their bodies all over the place. Even young fellas can get hurt doing that.

I will say the Tillman is clearly really good at blocking (chucking) the gunner. That is pretty valuable if the team has a really good PRer. hmmm

Good corners are so damn hard to replace though. I'm still mixed on the issue, I love special teams.

Sometimes I just don't get it, I don't expect too really as just a fan who has lots to learn.
But which do you really think would be harder to replace? Your No. 1 running back or your No. 1 corner? Forte gets a pass because of why exactly?

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Originally Posted by RochBear

"Crazy" would be if the rate of injury make the risk/return impossibly high. This is the corner on the punt return team though, the the kickoff (either side) where the true "suicide squad" members live. Does anybody know if the punt return guys (other than the PR himself) are any more or less liable to injuries than CBs in normal football? In both cases you got guys sprinting around throwing their bodies all over the place. Even young fellas can get hurt doing that.

I will say the Tillman is clearly really good at blocking (chucking) the gunner. That is pretty valuable if the team has a really good PRer. hmmm

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Great points. My son and I had quite a discussion on this last night. He believes Tillman is really (very) gifted at blocking the gunner, and this is really important to the team. Important enough to put Tillman out there. So maybe I'm wrong.

He plays the STeams spot he's asked to play very well and all that happened was he got kicked in the shin. That could have happened on any defensive play too. I believe he'll play tonight but if not Hayden is a good CB so we don't lose much there.

I'm somewhat opposed to using starters on coverage units too but blocking a gunner on a return isn't a high risk deal and if he can do it alone that's one more blocker free to take someone else.

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Originally Posted by JustAnotherBearsFan99

Great points. My son and I had quite a discussion on this last night. He believes Tillman is really (very) gifted at blocking the gunner, and this is really important to the team. Important enough to put Tillman out there. So maybe I'm wrong.

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Lol, the side I am arguing for has an ally in your family. Cool.

We may never see Tillman out there again, but if we do he is worth a watch. He is good. It seem really similar to the skill needed for chucking the receiver at the line. Makes you wonder how well he would have done over the years if he had been asked to do more of that.