McMahon excited about Saints’ special teams
 

Sheldon Mickles
Advocate sportswriter

METAIRIE — Having a normal offseason program this spring and summer would have made things a whole lot easier for NFL special teams coordinators like Greg McMahon.

McMahon, who is entering his fourth season as the leader of the New Orleans Saints’ special teams, molds his various kick and kick-coverage teams in the spring around a core group of returnees with a few rookies and other newcomers mixed in.

But because of the lockout this year, he didn’t get a chance to work with any players, including veteran free agents, until training camp. Even then, free-agent signees couldn’t practice until one week into camp.

“Here’s how we looked at it: We’re all behind the eight-ball as far as that goes — all 32 teams,” McMahon said. “But certainly, you would probably know your personnel a little better at this time of the year.”

Full article below.
McMahon excited about Saints

Moving KOs to the 35 is going to help in that aspect (less run backs) BUT Overall the STs looked good on Friday!

Definitely! But there's still all those punts. The niners only got one decent runback on our punting unit. Not too shabby. We didn't do real well in that department last year. By the end of the season I was yellin' for them to go for it on fourth down every time.

Lots of fresh bodies to look at on ST. It seems they were trying to address our shortcomings from last year. Guys have to be disciplined and willing to stick their noses in there when prompted. ST is not for the timid or the guys that close their eyes just before contact. We'll see how these work out for us.

It already looked better on Friday.

Heads up folks........McMahon is still the coach. This will be the season for him to save his job or Payton can let his long time friend hit the bricks. Not having to worry about covering kickoffs should help him tremendously.

I will reserve judgment till the bullets fly for real..

Lets look on the bright side of this. Even though McMahon is still the coach, can our STs be any worse than they were last season?

Is that actually a "bright side"?:confused:

True, we've been signing backup guys who "excell on special teams" for several years now.

There was no excuse last year, so there will certainly be no excuse this year.