I had a thought the other day: I think teams would be better if they considered the punting units as part of their defenses. It would change the entire way teams conceptualize their usage, and perhaps make you think in more dynamic ways about whether to even employ them after reaching their own 40 yard line. And then again, maybe it wouldn’t change a thing, because changes in philosophy come slow, even as it is apparent in other places.
I had an interesting back and forth with someone on Twitter, a guy many of you may even know, and it made me rethink how the Miami Dolphins defense is run, compared to how it is constructed.