No 'Special' In Special Teams For Broncos

In football there are three phases of the game: Offense, defense, and special teams.

Offense and defense get talked about all the time, while the special teams stand on the sidelines all alone.

My football coaches use to tell us if we won two out of three and we would win the game.

The Broncos have struggled to win two phases of the game on a consistent basis. At times the special teams has looked like an ignored unit.

If the Broncos want to become contenders again the special teams needs just as much fixing as the defense.

Last season both of the Broncos coverage units on kickoffs and punts finished 28th overall in the league.

The return game was better finishing 23rd overall in the kick return game with a 21.8 return average. Punt returns was their best finish at 13th with a 9.7 average.

A weak return game lead to long fields for the offense to drive and short fields for the defense to defend. These are stats that need to flip-flop.

These units will see much change with free agent signings and the draft, where the Broncos have brought in over 45 new players. For new players trying to make a name for themselves special teams is a great place.

A key to special teams will be how much Matt Prater improves in his 2008 season.

Prater showed greater distance making five of six from 50-plus yards, but he finished making just 73 percent of his kicks. Accuracy will be key element for Prater to improve on if he wants to keep the kicking job.

Prater will not have any kicking competition, but Brett Kern the Broncos' punter will have to beat out free agent rookie Britton Colquitt.

Kern’s numbers were good finishing seventh overall in the league, but he can still improve on his numbers inside the 20s. He had only 13 punts inside the 20 and only four of those were fair caught.

One number Kern must improve is not letting the other team the opportunity to return the ball. Kern had only six fair catches last season ranking him 31st in the league.  Meaning teams had plenty of opportunity to improve their field position on returns.

Improvement on the special teams will need to come from both new and veteran players to make the team a contender. Battles for position will help make the special teams unit stronger.

For the Broncos to make the special teams an important phase of the game again.