How do you determine your starting kick and punt returner?

[solmon]

Quote: Originally Posted by cparrish

I usually just make one of my lower rated recruit a career return man. It's a fun way to get a guy who may not see the field a ton on the field every game.

Love this idea! Never done that before...hard to recruit enough speed right now in year 1 at Memphis but hopefully this next year I can find a guy like that. Thanks.

[TNBassMan10]

Two things:

Speed

Acceleration

[Cheese2121]

Like the others I tend to shy away from my starters, especially since I am on NCAA '12 where injuries are a real concern on special teams. Typically I am using wide receivers or corners with decent speed who are buried on the depth chart. If the right running back came along, I might consider that.

[whughes]

What I've been doing is I'll wait till week 6 or 7 when I've got a good lead on the guys I really want. Then I'll go and sort recruits by their 40 times (pure speed) and go after the fastest guy who has around 20% or less lock. They're usually 1-2* guys with no skills other than speed.

I actually had one of these guys who is now my #3 receiver in his senior year. Came in at a 62ovr, he's a 74 now as a senior. He came in as a 2* recruit

[RoyMela]

Kick returner:

- Not a starter
- Fastest player available, but must have some carrying skills

Punt returner:

- Not a starter
- Player with best agility and acceleration, and good speed is a plus.

Main thing is to set blockers correctly. Not even the best players can do much, if blockers are bad. Therefore find the players with best run blocking skills and put them on the field.

On KR, first line usually has backup LB:s and DB:s, but some DE:s have great blocking skills. In middle I usually have bigger players, and speed players near sidelines. Most likely HB:s and WR:s have better blocking skills than DB:s, so there I can find better blocking. Second row has backup TE:s and FB:s, they are usually OK. With Kick Return Middle formation I replace the backup returner with the best run blocker available, so he can make the key blocks in front of returner.

On punt return I always use Return Middle formation. Same goes there. Formation has two DB:s on both sides. Players near sidelines must be DB:s with great speed with good jamming ability. Players next to them run back for blocking, and there I use WR:s and RB:s with speed and run blocking skills. Usually they are DB:s, but their run blocking usually is poor.

[midero]

I mostly pick the guy with the highest OVR....unless I got a real fast guy on the roster (who's OVR isn't that much worse)

[shockscape]

As most have stated...I tend to check players' SPD, ACC, and OVR for KR and PR. I usually set it 3 to 4 guys deep too, in case of injury. I shy away from starters returning the kicks and punts b/c of injury. I do enjoy having a young player returning kicks and is able to make a career out of it without being a starter on offense or defense. I feel he served his purpose and it was better than sitting on the bench. Sometimes, those players are harder to replace than WRs or HBs...b/c if they are too good, then they will be starting for the team.

How deep does everyone set their deep chart for KR and PR??

[Haze88]

Do any of you fiddle around with the 2 KR formations much? Never have but I end up with several good KR candidates that I want to try it. And do you formation sub guys on these formations?