Ferguson: The golden age of kick returners in the CFL

Marshall Ferguson

CFL.ca

@TSN_Marsh

I remember being in university in 2011 playing quarterback at McMaster when ESPN labelled that NFL season “The Year of the Quarterback.”

I thought it seemed like a funny concept, to take the wide swatch of pro football history and label that one season as being the best or most important in recent memory at a singular position.

I had a hard time disagreeing after I watched our starting QB Kyle Quinlan at McMaster hurdle a Laval defender in the 2011 Vanier, while Travis Lulay carried the BC Lions to a Grey Cup days later on the same BC Place field in Vancouver.

A few years ago everyone started buzzing about “The Year of the Catch”.

Again I scoffed at the idea. Great catches are made all the time and just because Duron Carter turned his wrist around and knocked down a ball while adjusting to fall underneath it doesn’t mean that CFL season was the best we’ve ever seen from professional pass catchers.

In his first CFL season, Lucky Whitehead has already emerged as a star (Jason Halstead/CFL.ca)

Again I had a hard time disagreeing with the concept when week after week after week CFL receivers continued to pull off catches, adjustments and hand-eye ball skills with a consistency and flair I couldn’t remember seeing before.

This CFL season all the buzz is about the returners, but is it REALLY the year of the returner or are we all prisoners of the moment?

First the hard numbers. There are three more (10) “big” returns – 40 yards or more as defined by the CFL stats crew – than there were at this point last year (7). That might seem like an anomaly but the reality is that 43 per cent increase has been game changing to offences starting field position.

Starting field position is almost always correlated with offensive success and scoring is up four per cent this year so you do the math.

Part of the overall scoring bump through the CFL has been points scored on special teams, a dagger to one side and a euphoric bump to the other. Entering Week 7 we had already had four kickoffs returned for touchdown this year compared to three ALL of last season.

The all-time record in one year is seven in 2003 so we’re well on the way to that, but how have we arrived at a place when returners are creating more get-out-of-your-seat explosive plays than ever before?

In honesty there is no one answer, but there are a few major factors at play, as Hamilton Tiger-Cats head coach Orlando Steinauer outlined Tuesday in a conference call leading into this Friday’s marquee matchup with the Bombers.

“I don’t know if I can put my finger on it. I think there’s some dynamic returners in the league. I think it is being officiated a little bit different throughout the league. Credit the team, credit dynamic returners for making plays but I don’t think that I have a direct answer as to why.”

More on those elite returners in a moment but first the way returns are being officiated.

Usually big returns of the past have been created by wild crack back blocks where a return team blocker blindsides a member of the kicking team with a cymbal crash worthy of a world class orchestra to the wild applause of thousands at home and in their stadium seats.

The reality is that big block was as dangerous as it was effective and eliminating a player’s ability to make a living for months in exchange for one big block that earns first bumps in film the next day just isn’t a direction the CFL – or any other league that cares about its players – should want to embrace.

Ironically now, to anyone holding yesteryear dearly, each week in the CFL the biggest returns are being created by what I like to call ‘responsible blocking’ where returners shield block and essentially become a speed bump instead of a stop sign.

The game has become more about planning, body positioning and understanding leverage than brute strength and wildly violent collisions. All of that is allowing return men to access their raw speed and create more big plays than ever before.

This concept isn’t lost on Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea.

“There are some returners that are just unbelievable out there. They take the field and they are a threat to score at any time. You don’t need the perfect blocking scheme. I don’t think there’s really anything new in scheme. You’re getting bodies on bodies but even then with some of these returners, you certainly don’t need to be perfect. They can make a lot of guys miss around them. That’s the way I see it.”

I believe we are living in a golden era of returners.

A pair of NFL experienced speedsters in Brandon Banks and Lucky Whitehead have already made their impact felt in returns this year to the tune of three combined touchdowns while long time return expert Chris Rainey made the move to Toronto in free agency this spring and provided the Argos one of their few moments of hope this year with a return touchdown.

There is also youth in touchdown scoring returners Will Likely and Frankie Williams from Hamilton, not to mention a name you know finding a new way to change the game in Brandon Rutley who reached paydirt on a Week 1 kick return.

The evolving rules which are being adjusted to by coverage units, the dynamic returners calling the CFL home and the imagination of experienced special teams coaches around the league.

Add it all up and we just might have the year of the returner in the CFL on our hands.

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