Music City Miracles
Tennessee Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi said at his press conference today that Chimere Dike will be the team’s punt returner against the Denver Broncos. Borgonzi added that Dike’s return ability is part of the reason they drafted him. This is a bit of a turn from last week when Titans special teams coach John Fassel said that Dike wasn’t ready to be back there yet.
A lot of people, myself included, assumed that James Proche would be elevated from the practice squad in Denver to return punts. That, apparently, is not the case. It really makes you wonder why Jha’Quan Jackson got so many chances to return punts in the preseason.
Dike returned 14 punts for 187 yards last year for the Florida Gators. The yardage is obviously important for the punt returner, but possibly even more important is the decision on when to catch a punt and when to let it hit the ground. We have seen numerous guys have a problem with that here in the past.
The Titans took special teams too lightly on cutdown day last year, and it showed up in a big way in the first few games – possibly even costing them a win or two. Here’s to hoping that history doesn’t repeat itself this year.
