Archer, kick-return team feel heat
“I’m ready to see Dri Archer do something. I’m excited for him. We need to go past the 15 on kickoff returns. That would be awesome.”
Center Maurkice Pouncey uttered those words one week ago when the Steelers reported to training camp, but any member of the Steelers fan base likely said the same thing on any number of occasions Archer attempted to return a kickoff in 2014.
Pouncey was exaggerating, but only by a little. According to Football Outsiders, the average starting field position for the Steelers last season was the 25.2, third worst in the league.
Archer, drafted in 2014 as a return specialist, heard the message loud and clear.
“The farther you can get the ball up the field the better position you put your offense to drive down the field,” Archer said. “It’s a goal of ours to improve.”
It has been a point of emphasis this offseason for special teams coach Danny Smith. It’s the one area on special teams he believes
must improve the most.
“We need to improve our kickoff-return stuff,” Smith said. “We got off to a real slow start. We were bad early. We got decent, which made it just a below-average year. But we were awful early. We improved. That was a good thing. We have to continue that. We have to get better field position for our offense in that phase.”
Archer, the team’s 2014 third-round selection, was given the chance to return kicks early in the season, but he only averaged 17.9 yards per return on nine attempts. He was benched in favor of Markus Wheaton, who averaged 24.7 yards on 20 attempts. The Steelers finished 26th in the league with a 21.7 average.
Even though Archer was drafted for his return prowess, Smith said he has to earn the job again this season. He is competing with Wheaton and others in training camp.
“We’re going to play the best player,” Smith said. “It’s always been a Steelers philosophy. And I love that. There are some other guys in that mix. We’ll see who can do it and who can’t. With the five preseason games, that will give us a good indication.
“I’m high on Dri. I think Dri is going to be fabulous. I love Markus Wheaton, too.
”He’s a heck of a player. He’s more confident and comfortable because he has more experience. I expect Dri to grow into that as well.”
Smith took some of the blame for Archer’s problems in 2014.
Because he was such a prolific return man at Kent State, Smith gave Archer the go-ahead to return kicks that were kicked 8 or 9 yards deep in the end zone.
Many of those, as Pouncey noted, put the offense in bad field position. When the weather got worse late in the season and kickers were not booting the ball as deep, it was Wheaton who was able to provide the offense with a better starting position.
Don’t expect Archer to have the green light in those situations this season.
“I’ll make better decisions,” Smith said. “I’ll put him in better situations. Sometimes, when the ball was kicked deep, I was telling him, ‘Let’s go’ just to get him some confidence. Really, it wasn’t smart on my part. There are times you want to do that. There are times you can do that. A lot of it has to do with the situation in the game, the other team. I can help us a lot with that.”
When Archer does field a returnable kick this season he said he must do a better job of setting up his blocks. Smith has been working with Archer in some drills this summer to help him do that.
Archer averaged 37 yards per kickoff return as a junior at Kent State and scored three touchdowns. He only returned two kickoffs as a senior, but he scored another touchdown and averaged 64 yards per return.
The transition to the NFL proved to be much more difficult. In college, Archer was able to use his 4.3 speed to simply run past oncoming tacklers. In the NFL, many players have the speed to track Archer and tackle him.
“Speed is this league is very important, but if you just run one way, they can run, too,” Smith said. “They cut off your angles. Dri understands it. He knows you have to set those up.
It’s not always the fastest guy who is the best returner. The best returners know how to set up blocks and do all those things. Sometimes in college you only have to beat six or seven guys. Here, there are 10 coming after you. There is a big difference.”