Despite Patricia’s good words about him after the game, Agnew put another punt on the ground yesterday. Lucky for him it got erased due to off-setting penalties, and the Lions benched him for Amendola to return punts. But the guy has been dropping balls in practice and in games, and doesn’t really contribute much on defense, so is he about to be gone?
Look - you gotta have a PR guy that no matter what doesn’t give it back to the kicking team. It’s great if the guy can rip off a big return for you, but Agnew hasn’t been doing that either. So, I’m guessing we’re looking for somebody else this morning, maybe a guy that’s already on the team other than Amendola. Who IMHO is too valuable to the offense. Maybe McKissic, I dunno. We’ll see.
I don’t mind using Amendola on punt return, just not kick return. And you are right, ball security is the most important thing, so I think Agnew has lost his job.
He’d be foolish not to use Amendola again on punt returns. Agnew was a flash in the pan his rookie season but hasn’t shown much since. He is definitely the Lions worst defensive player. Pray that he never has to play in the secondary.
Patricia may feel that he doesn’t want to expose Amendola to injuries considering his history of missing games.
I like Agnew and hope he returns to his old self. But he has lost his speed from the injury and that is what have him an edge.
If he cannot recover plus speed, then hopefully he work technique to continue as a productive player. If not, I think his injury will have killed his career.
FYI, the Lions have only returned a KO 3 times so far in 2019, and Agnew did all of them. The rest were touchbacks.
McKissic has never return a punt in his NFL career thus far. If he has, I couldn’t find any data on it. Which is not to say he can’t, but I’d kinda like to have an experienced guy back there.
This didn’t just start, he was like this last year as well. Powell should have made the team over him. He has lost his confidence and that is death for a return guy. It isn’t just fumbles as he has looked terrible and insecure trying to return anything.
…kick return and punt return are 2 different skill sets and in a way…2 different goals. I prefer runningbacks as kick returners and corners/wide receivers as punt returners.
He did for Atlanta - Must’ve been preseason. I found a video of him scoring a TD on a kick return, when I was trying to figure out why we kept him over Thompson.