Special ed for the football impaired

 

Maybe all you need to know about the importance of special teams in the NFL can be summed up by the rankings in our new Special Teams Index.

 

Tied at No. 2 in the index are:

The bottom line is this: good teams (like Indianapolis, tied for 26th, or the No. 32 N.Y. Giants) are still good even if they have poor special teams. And bad teams like San Francisco are still bad even if they have pretty good special teams.

 

But that doesn't mean that special teams are useless. Buffalo, which is the unquestioned special-teams king this year (No. 1 on the Index) and has been strong in this area for years, is 4-4 despite being outgained by almost 100 yards a game. Coincidence? We doubt it.

  

And a team like the 1-8 Jets, who have lost several close games, probably would have an extra "W" in their pocket if it weren't for their lowly rating (tied for 27th) in the index. 

 

Here's how the index works: much like our Hog Indexes, we rank the 32 NFL teams in the five important special teams categories -- field-goal kicking, net kickoffs, net punts, kick returns and net punt returns -- and then average out their ranks for their overall S-T Index score.

 

The five categories:

 

We're using old friend Mike Carlson's "C.O.C.K.-Up" rating system here. It stands for Carlson's Original Calibration for Kickers-Unscientific Program, and here's how it works:

• For every field goal made from inside the 40, a kicker gets one point, but he loses three for a miss. 
• Between 40 and 49, it's two for a make and minus two for a miss. 
• Hit from 50 or beyond and it's worth three, while a miss costs a kicker only one. 

Then we divide the C.O.C.K.-U.P. total by the number of kicks attempted. This gives us C.O.C.K-U.P. Per Attempt, or C.O.C.K.-U.pP.A. 

 

The best kicker in the league thus far is San Francisco's Joe Nedney, with a 1.25 average. Nedney has been great for the Niners, and since both of their wins were slim (1 and 3 points), you could argue that he's the team MVP. Will he go to the Pro Bowl? Doubt it. But it could happen. No. 2 is Seattle's Josh Brown (1.176), followed by Cincinnati's Shayne Graham (1.154).

 

In last place, not surprisingly, is Olindo Mare of the Saints. The Saints have the No. 32 ranked special teams in the league, and Mare is a good reason. His C.O.C.K.-up number is actually negative (-0.3), which is quite an achievement for a guy that the Saints actually TRADED FOR! (sixth round pick). The Falcons and Chiefs are also in the bottom three, thanks largely to their since-fired rookie kickers that started the season. Reliable Jeff Wilkins in St. Louis is a surprising 29th.

 

No rocket science here, it's just gross kickoff yards - opposition return yards/touchback yards. It's not one-million percent accurate, as a team that has had to kick 10 onsiders will be penalized, but it's as close as you're going to get.

 

The kickoff kings are the aforementioned Chiefs (1st) and Falcons (2nd), who can't kick it straight but can certainly kick it far. Nedney and the Niners are 3rd, followed by San Diego and New England. 

 

The winless Dolphins can pin some of the blame on their kickoff coverage, which ranks dead last with a net 37.9 yards -- meaning, assuming kickoffs from the 30, that their opponents are starting each of their drives past the 30. Also in that boat are the Giants (38.2), Redskins (39.3) and Bengals (39.6).

 

This one's finally been accepted as the more important stat than gross punting when judging kickers, although no one in the NFL pundit community is much concerned with either stat.

 

Oakland, with the amazing Shane Lechler doing the booting, is 1st with a 43.9 yard per punt net average. To put that number in perspective, all-time great Raider punter Ray Guy had a gross average of 42.4, and a net of 33.8 for his career. Guy kicked in a different era, but goes to show just how much better today's punters are.

 

Second behind Lechler is Andy Lee of the Niners (43.6), followed by the Eagles, Rams and Packers.

 

On the bad end of it, Hunter Smith and the Colts are last at 32.1 net yards per punt -- not a huge deal, since he's punted 23 times in eight games (and 99 times total from 2005-06). The Cardinals, thanks to punter Mike Barr (maybe the most obscure regular player in the league) are No. 31.

 

This is a pretty obvious way to rate a kick-return game, but it does have flaws - pointed out by the fact that the Chicago Bears rank No. 31 in this category mostly because teams are kicking short to avoid Devin Hester.  

 

But Carolina, with no Devin Hester, earned their No. 32 spot (and their No. 30 overall rank as a team). The Panthers' reputation as a special teams haven is no more.

 

Leading the way in this category is New England at 28.5 yards a return, just ahead of division mates the Jets at 28.2. Cleveland, Baltimore and Jacksonville round out the top five to give the AFC a sweep.

 

It's always irked the Cold, Hard Football Facts that fair catches aren't figured into a returner's average. As it stands, if Punt Returner A has 10 returns for 100 yards + 10 fair catches for zero yards and Punt Returner B has 20 returns for 199 yards and no fair catches, PR A is averaging 10.0 a return, PR B 9.9 a return.

 

Unfair! Punt returners with balls should go on strike to protest their less-bold counterparts.

 

Needless to say, we figure in the FCs in our rankings, which leaves Cincinnati at No. 32 with a pathetic 1.81 net yards per punt return.Oakland is No. 31 at 2.96.

 

On the other end of the spectrum are the Bears, who are averaging an amazing 15.96 net yards per return -- not bad, when only two other teams (Buffalo and Seattle) are over 10 yards a return. 

 

One thing that we found was that no team was truly great across the board at all five prongs of the ST Index -- only Buffalo was above average at all five, although San Diego was close (No. 17 in field-goal kicking).

 

It was the same on the other end, where Detroit was the only team to be subpar in all five areas.

 

Of the top 10 teams on the list, only New England, Cleveland and Pittsburgh had winning records, the same number in the bottom 10 (New York Giants, Indianapolis, Detroit).

 

Here's the complete index for your nerdy perusal. 

 

		FG kick	rnk	Net KO	rnk	Net punt	rnk	K ret	rnk	Punt ret	rnk	AVG.
1	BUF	0.867	12	43.9	14	38.8	8	25.8	7	14.05	2	8.6
2t	NE	0.833	14	46.2	5	37.2	20	28.5	1	8.29	9	9.8
2t	SD	0.778	17	46.5	4	39.7	6	24.7	11	7.33	11	9.8
2t	SF	1.25	1	47.1	3	43.6	2	21.9	24	5.74	19	9.8
5t	SEA	1.176	2	45.7	7	36.1	25	24.2	14	11.68	3	10.2
5t	HOU	1.15	4	43.3	19	38.5	10	24.5	13	9.11	6	10.2
7	CLE	1.071	5	43.8	15	35.6	27	27.7	3	9	7	11.4
8	BAL	0.857	13	43.8	15	37	21	27.5	4	8.96	8	12.2
9	MIN	1	8	45.6	8	36.5	23	25.8	7	5.64	20	13.2
10	PIT	1	8	41.5	25	38.7	9	25.5	9	5.28	22	14.6
11t	TEN	1.045	7	43.6	18	37.9	16	22.6	21	7.29	12	14.6
11t	ATL	0.143	31	47.7	2	38.1	14	22.3	22	9.3	5	14.6
13	CHI	0.813	15	43.7	17	38.2	13	18.3	31	15.96	1	15.4
14	DAL	1	8	42.5	24	39.2	7	21.9	24	6.62	15	15.6
15t	STL	0.35	29	40.3	27	41.3	4	23.6	18	9.39	4	16.4
15t	WAS	0.733	19	39.3	30	37.6	17	26.2	6	7.5	10	16.4
15t	JAX	0.583	25	45.8	6	37.5	18	27.4	5	3.81	28	16.4
18	GB	0.7	20	43.3	19	40.1	5	22.3	22	6.03	17	16.6
19	TB	0.588	24	45.6	8	35.8	26	23.7	16	7.2	13	17.4
20t	DEN	0.563	26	45.5	11	38.5	10	24.2	14	4.21	27	17.6
20t	OAK	0.667	21	45.6	8	43.9	1	21	27	2.96	31	17.6
22t	PHI	0.619	23	42.8	22	42	3	20.6	28	6.96	14	18
22t	KC	0.333	30	48.3	1	38.3	12	20.3	29	5.79	18	18
24	AZ	0.875	11	45.2	12	33.9	31	24.8	10	3.48	29	18.6
25	MIA	1.071	5	37.9	32	37.3	19	21.9	24	4.87	24	20.8
26t	IND	0.667	21	43.2	21	32.1	32	22.8	20	6.4	16	22
26t	NYJ	0.444	28	41.3	26	36.4	24	28.2	2	3.47	30	22
26t	CIN	1.154	3	39.6	29	34.1	30	23.7	16	1.81	32	22
29	DET	0.75	18	42.7	23	35.6	27	23.2	19	4.71	25	22.4
30	CAR	0.786	16	40.3	27	38.1	15	17.7	32	4.43	26	23.2
31	NO	-0.333	32	44	13	36.8	22	20.2	30	5.54	21	23.6
32	NYG	0.467	27	38.2	31	34.5	29	24.7	11	4.88	23	24.2

 

By Kerry Byrne