News: Rick Gosselin's NFL special teams rankings, 2015: Cowboys lost Dwayne Harris, their best player, and

[CCBoy]

Rick Gosselin's NFL special teams rankings, 2015: Cowboys lost Dwayne Harris, their best player, and improved

http://sportsday.***BANNED-URL***/d...wboys-lost-dwayne-harris-best-player-improved




When offensive coordinator Scott Linehan lost his best player, the Cowboys offense went south.

Two broken collarbones suffered by Tony Romo cost Linehan 12 starts from his Pro Bowl quarterback and the offense collapsed from seventh in the NFL in 2014 to 22nd in 2015, scoring 192 fewer points.

When special-teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia lost his best player, surprisingly, his special teams improved. The Cowboys vaulted from 13th in the NFL in special teams in 2014 to fourth in 2015, according to rankings compiled annually by The Dallas Morning News.

The league's 32 teams are ranked in 22 categories and assigned points according to their standing - one for best, 32 for worst. The Baltimore Ravens finished with the best special teams in the NFL this season with 231 points, followed by the New York Giants (271.5), Jacksonville Jaguars (295) and Cowboys (310.5).

The Cowboys opted not to resign Dwayne Harris last offseason, which cost Bisaccia his best punt returner, best kickoff returner, best gunner on the punt team and best coverage ace on the kickoff team...

 

[Doomsday101]

I hated that we lost Harris and I think we could have overcome it a bit easier had Whitehead been involved earlier on than he did. I look forward to seeing Whitehead as the full time return man and being utilized more on offense on plays like the Jet sweep

 

[Manwiththeplan]

I hated that we lost Harris and I think we could have overcome it a bit easier had Whitehead been involved earlier on than he did. I look forward to seeing Whitehead as the full time return man and being utilized more on offense on plays like the Jet sweep

I like Whitehead, but even Dwayne Harris wasn't ready from day 1 as a rookie. Given how the season went, it's hard to argue that we would have lost little by getting him going week 1, but with the goals this team had, the prudent thing was to ease him along.

 

[Doomsday101]

I like Whitehead, but even Dwayne Harris wasn't ready from day 1 as a rookie. Given how the season went, it's hard to argue that we would have lost little by getting him going week 1, but with the goals this team had, the prudent thing was to ease him along.

I get that and not dumping on the Cowboys for not having him return week 1 I did feel they should have allowed him to take over the job sooner than they did. Late in the season they were still using Beasley whom I like but lets face it he is not a very good returner

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Football Outsiders showed the same thing. We went down in punt returns, but by the same token became better kickoff returns and overall went from 13th in total special teams in 2014 to 11th this past season.

The facts are that Whitehead is a much better kickoff returner at a much cheaper price. Harris had 39 catches in a pass happy, dink-n-dunk system with Eli at QB compared to Beasley who had 52 catches in a run oriented offense with Weeden/Cassel/Moore at QB and is 2 years younger than Harris.

Harris' main advantage was he was a better punt returner than Beasley and is very good in ST coverage. However, Harris' punt return skills diminished with the Cowboys (and he only average 10 yards per return this year) and Whitehead has more potential in the punt return game, but struggled with some early muffs/fumbles so they had Beasley do more of the punt returns. However, by the end of the season Whitehead was doing more of the returns. And again, younger and at a far cheaper price.

Harris was a moderately effective player that did it thru heart and determination. But, you could say that Beasley, a 5'8" receiver has plenty of heart and determination as well. And he's a more effective WR. Whitehead was a far better performer in his rookie year than Harris.To me, it's tough to justify what the Giants paid Harris because his production is not really worth it.







YR