Shaun Rowland: The Human Joystick

[kcchief19]

I drafted Shaun with the 14th pick in the first round from Florida State because I needed to upgrade both my wideouts, and he looked like an outstanding prospect. He also was highly rated in punt returns, so that was a plus.

As a receiver, he's been everything I hoped for. He came out of rooking training camp something like 37/64 and at the end of his second season he was 69/69. My coach runs a ball control offense, so we typically spread the ball around pretty well. His first two years in the league he has 115 catches for 1,485. Solid for my team.

His punt return numbers have been phenomenal. In two seasons he has 992 punt return yards for a 13.6 average. In his second season he set the league record for punt return yards in a season with 671 (590 was the old mark). I'm 20 years into this career and the career mark is 1,982, so he's almost halfway there in two seasons -- and he missed three games in his rookie season.

I'm interested to see if he can keep this up. I've rarely had a a player who was so dominant in one specific area that he basically left everyone else in the dust, even if it is an obscure specialty.

Unfortunately, it does highlight one of the maddening characteristics of FOF -- the dreaded player who is rated 100 punt returns and ZERO for kick off returns.

Oddly, his arrival in Kansas City coincided with a sudden turnaround in performance. We were a .500 team before he got here, inexplicably losing games despite having a well rated roster. In the last two seasons, we've had the league's top defense, top offense and top record, although we've been upset in the playoffs both years. The only other significant changes on the team has been the addition of a stud free agent MLB and the development of a draft pick into a run-stopping DT. But I've lost my bookend stude defensive ends and have average guys playing there, and I've lost both my all-pro safeties. Could having a special teams player who makes that big of a difference in field position make that big of a difference on a team?

[Ragone]

I seem to think so Kcchief.. just as long as you can keep Mr Rowland running forward on punt returns.. instead of left to right

[Raiders Army]

Just curious, but what type of draft did he come from? Human-generated, FOF-generated, or TCY-generated?

[Senator]

I think so. I had a guy in IHOF named Randall Herrmann, whose return technique won me, in my opinion, 3-5 games. He made our average team, a playoff team. Sadly though, I missed an export because we were having our first child and the AI cut him, only to be picked up by the feared Plague.

[JeffW]

Chubby's WAFL WR Lester Shelton is a return game monster. He's averaging 38 yards/kick return and returned back to back kickoffs for TDs in a game against me(of course, I won 37-20 ).

[kcchief19]

Rowland set the career punt return yardage record for my league late in this fourth season. He now has 2,775 punt return yards in five seasons with a 13.5 average and 1 TD. In the playoffs, he has a 14.2 average and a TD.

In addition to the career mark, he has the top three and the sixth-best single-season marks and the playoff game record for punt return yards. The only punt return records he doesn't own are the single-game regular season record (currently holds fifth best) and the single-season and career records for TDs. But he's got a ways to go still.

Coincidentally, I also have the No. 1 kickoff returner in my league. Gabe Graybill in nine seasons has 10,195 kickoff return yards for a 31.0 yard average. The second best total if 6,742 yards.