Building A Champion; Part 2 of 3 - Special Teams

Today in the 2nd building blocks. We take a look at strengths weakness and things we do well but need to improve upon before they become weaknesses on spceial teams. 

To see the first issue of the building a champion series click here. 

Bright spots

Dan Bailey had a field goal percentage of 93.3 missing only 2 field goals. 28/30 on the season. Bailey had a contract due to expire. While most Cowboys faithful think that is a no brainer to sign him I feel differently. Now if we were to sign Bailey to no more than a 2 year contract I have no issue. However what I am hearing is a 3-5 year deal. This would be a complete mistake. The reason (one of) why we are in salary cap hell is signing players for too long or to soon. Bailey case would be to long. We must remembers that kickers are a funny bunch. One week there hot one week they get cut. Remember 4 short seasons ago when the Cowboys were 13-3 we had a hot kicker named

One of the leagues best kickers Mason Crosby (Green Bay) signed a deal a few years ago, had one horrible season and was about to get cut in 2012 but took a pay cut instead. Only because his coach had his back. Hell Jimmy Johnson even fired a kicker on the plane going home following a game.

Long story short. Don't pay kickers. I can come to terms with signing Bailey but no more than 2 years. 

Question marks

Rich Bisaccia special team coach could be leaving. Bisaccia was hired in January 2013 as the Cowboys literally stole Bisaccia from Auburn. Could the Browns just be twiddling their fingers loudly until Broncos and Seahawks coordinators are able to interview? Very likely but Bisaccia had had 3 interviews within a month and if he doesn't get a job this year next year could be his year. 

Bisaccia finished his first year with the Cowboys and improved the special teams unit in every statistical category. Dallas was ranked 17th in special teams this year they improved to 4th.

Finding a replacement for Dwayne Harris. This is not a knock on him but since he was in the hamstring hell club plus his role in the offense will increase in 2014. We need to find his successor. I thought that Dallas would have had a good thing going rotating him and Micheal Spurlock but Romo’s injury made us drop Spurlock and add a quarterback. The key is someone should share the load with Harris. A good idea is putting Miles back there. Maybe it will really give him that unsigned free agent push that Garrett claims is still there. I saw Miles practice returns before the Kansas City game. This is a move to think about if we get stuck with him in 2014.

Things to build on before they get worst.

Williams and Beasley came in on return duties when Harris was out. These two made me nervous as return men and there was not the threat which Harris brought on special teams. Beasley did not have a return of more than 15 yards and Williams didn't have a return over 35 yards. Harris on the other hand finshed 3rd in the NFL in punt returns with an average of 12.8 yards and second in kickoff returns with an average of 30.6 yards.

The reason I bring this up is because not too long ago (2012). Dallas' return game was horrible we stared many drives from inside the 20. This stalled most of our drives before they even started. With such a high powered offense it always amazed me why we essentially gave up and ran draw plays when inside the 20. If you faintly remember 2012 it was a lot like the Kansas City game field position wise.   

Lastly Harris was the top coverage player on the Cowboys with a team-leading 13 tackles and a fumble recovery. The Cowboys finished seventh in the NFL in kickoff coverage.