I love his play making ability as a returner, but he fumbles the ball way too much to return punts imo. I'm willing to let him continue as a KR because you have time to recover your fumble on a botched catch, but if you do that as a PR it's typically a turnover. My prediction is someone else will be returning punts by the end of the year. Hope I'm wrong though.
His botched kick return yesterday, that led to the Texans starting at the 5 yard line, was enough to let me know that he's nothing more than a fast runner. Bad hands, bad decision making (should have never thought about bringing that ball out of the end zone), and bad instincts. I feel the return game/possessions are far too important to simply put your "fastest" guy back there and hope he can make something happen. For instance, Daniel Manning is not supremely "fast", but he's got great vision/instincts that would allow him to get far more average yards/return than Holiday.
Yeah, I don't know if I'm OK with him doing KRs if he's bobbling the ball a lot. I agree with the poster above. I'd rather have Manning do them.
Yeah he was absolutely awful yesterday. No gain on punts and never returned a kickoff past the 15. I would give him a few more weeks to see if he can redeem himself..
Not a good day to play a dud. Home opener with a chance to energize the crowd plus the team gave up a punt return touchdown on the other end.
I would not want Manning on punts. The Texans just aren't deep enough at Safety. Martin...I have same fears as Holliday. I don't worry so much about kickoffs as the Texans shouldn't have too many and there is time to recover if he does fumble kick.
He absolutely cannot have another performance like yesterday. A good team (i.e. not the Dolphins) would've been able to capitalize and force a turnover.
What they should do is rotate between Holliday, Demps, and Martin. Each player is fresh and if you have to cut Holliday, you have some experience with martin.
In a 16 game season, you don't have the luxury of giving a guy a "few more weeks"... when one of his mistakes could definitely dictate the outcome of a game. If I had the choice between having a potential fumble/bobble that leads to either a turnover or bad field position with a slight chance of a TD based on pre-season results only... vs no returner at all... give me the latter. Had Jacoby Jones made these sort of mistakes, he never would have been returning punts in the playoff game last year.
In all my years of watching and playing football, I had never seen that happen until yesterday. Bennie Hill-style comedy.
When he made the final roster, I got a little worried he would come back down to earth. Just one game, but I hope he wasn't just a preseason phenomenon.
He could go on and have several TD returns, but if he keeps bobbling the ball at this pace I would not trust him returning kicks/punts in the playoffs.
Def had a bad showing, but so the guys blocking for him were just as bad. He shouldn't be trying to dodge the first defender at the 10 yard line.
