Devin Hester Could Have Big Day for Bears Vs. Maligned Giants Special Teams

Devin Hester is thinking about returning punts for touchdowns again, and that’s a good thing for the Bears. It seems all it took was for someone to ask him about it.

Prior to Monday night’s game against the Packers, the talk turned to why Hester hadn’t been making an impact on returns like he did in his first and second season.

While Hester’s answer wasn’t significant, it may be no coincidence that he returned one 62 yards for a TD in his next game. It turns out that Hester just simply needed to make it a priority.

It’s not actually that simple, of course, but even Bears special teams coach Dave Toub suggested as much, according to ESPN.com’s Jeff Dickerson:

"He never really lost it. He made the transition over to wide receiver, [and] there was a little period there when it wasn't [at] the forefront for him.”

So is that all there is to it? Did someone merely have to remind Hester that he’s also getting paid to return punts in addition to catching passes?

No one knows for sure, but there are many theories as to what caused Hester to go from being on his way to the best ever to simply average.

One excuse is that the blocking isn’t as good as it used to be.

Another suggestion is that once he started getting hit hard, Hester didn’t like it and started shying away from contact.

Perhaps the most plausible reason could be that the Bears structured his contract such that his play at wide receiver would earn him more money and so he focused on that more. And, the double duty may have left him too tired to put as much effort into returning punts.

Yet now that he broke one Monday night, all eyes are back on Hester, including, of course, the eyes of the Giants. But they may not be able to do much about it.

For one, they have a miserable special teams thus far. "[The special teams have] been horrible, and they continued that way today [against Tennessee]," Giants head coach Tom Coughlin said Sunday.

For another, they have a punter in Matt Dodge who has a big leg but tends to hit low line drives that are very returnable. 

Perhaps the only thing they can do is to instruct Dodge to punt away from Hester.

But even if they do that, the Bears will have great field position and there are no guarantees that he will be successful trying to do so.

"It's hard to kick away from somebody," Toub said. "You're saying you're going to kick it out of bounds basically, but for a punter that's hard to do. It's hard to do that and still get good yardage at the same time."

Meanwhile, Hester is focused on continuing this sudden return to punt return glory against the Giants on Sunday night.

"I want to get a punt return against them," Hester said. "I want to get at least a punt return run against every team in the NFL. That's my goal."

Unlike becoming a true No. 1 wideout, this is a goal that Hester may actually reach someday.