Behold the future Hall of Famer on Sunday night at Lambeau Field who can dominate the Bears-Packers game every play his hands touch the football.
You can appreciate Brett Favre, too, if you wish.
But Devin Hester belongs in the same conversation of potential Canton-bound active players because of the pace in his first 23 NFL games that, to borrow Bears play-by-play man Jeff Joniak’s favorite adjective, is ridiculous.
Hester alone gives the Bears their best chance of winning a game against the Packers in which they really have no clear advantage besides kickoff and punt returns.
It would be folly to favor the Bears’ offense against an underrated Packers defense the way the offensive line has blocked, Cedric Benson has plodded and Brian Griese has passed. Habit makes it tempting to say the Bears’ defense will dominate like the good ol’ days of early September, but injuries and Favre’s improved efficiency against pressure this season nixes that assumption.
That leaves it up to Hester, the rarest Bear since Brian Urlacher and so good at his specific job that he already gets taken for granted in Chicago.
In 108 combined punt and kickoff returns as a pro, including the field-goal return last season against the Giants, Hester has scored nine touchdowns. That’s one touchdown every 12 touches — eye-popping in any era over any period of time.
It’s the highest ratio in NFL history for a return man, slightly ahead of Gale Sayers’ touchdown rate of one score every 14.8 returns, as footballoutsiders.com pointed out this week. Hester often gets compared to the likes of game-breaking return specialists such as Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, Brian Mitchell and Dante Hall but that’s more of a compliment to them than Hester.
Mitchell scored once every 82.3 returns, Johnson once every 50.6 and Hall once every 47.8.
Hester’s brief NFL career needs to be taken into context when analyzing such numbers, but does his limited experience make the comparison less impressive or more?
He’s 24.
“All the great returners have been one year and then you never hear about them,” Hester said. “With the talent I have, I want to continue at this. I don’t want it to be a one-year thing. I’m going to try to work as hard as I can to be the best punt returner, the best kickoff returner who ever played the game. That’s my goal.”
By season’s end, Hester realistically could have met that goal if teams continue to be foolish enough to kick to him. Already he stands within four scores of Mitchell’s NFL career record for special-teams touchdowns with 13.
The inordinate local focus on when Hester will line up at either wide receiver or running back to add verve to the offense often obscures the hidden yardage he already gains for the Bears.
It bears mentioning to complete the picture that Hester also has fumbled more than any other non-quarterback in the past 23 games — 15 times, losing two. That has to be corrected, but dwelling too much on Hester’s fumbling seems a bit like complaining about LeBron James’ turning the ball over too much.
“It’s hard being a track athlete and your arms are really pumping,” Hester offered as explanation.
Averaging 150.5 return yards per game this year, Hester is 1.5 yards behind the single-season record Michael Lewis of New Orleans set in 2002. His franchise-record 314 total return yards against the Lions was the second-highest NFL total ever behind Tyrone Hughes. He has five league records and three team marks.
Every time Hester lines up, another line of NFL history threatens to be edited.
“Why would you [kick to him]?” Bears kicker Robbie Gould asked. “Somebody wants to shut him down.”
“I would never kick it to him,” said NBC’s analyst John Madden, showing why he’s in the Hall of Fame as a coach.
Yet earlier this week, Packers coach Mike McCarthy sounded as if was leaning toward doing just that. Addressing the costs of kicking away from a returner as dangerous as Hester, he said, “You may give up some field position. That’s the flip side of it.”
Coaches worried more about field position than Hester can’t see the forest for the first-down markers, especially against an offense as limited as that of the Bears. Starting a series at the 40 doesn’t demoralize a team or change momentum the way a kickoff or punt return for a touchdown does.
Look at the Bears’ first two games for evidence. San Diego barely kept punts and kickoffs in the 619 area code and the approach neutralized Hester, who had only one kickoff return for 29 yards. Kansas City took the real-men-kick-to-anybody approach and Hester made them look silly with a 73-yard punt return for a touchdown that changed the complexion of that game.
If McCarthy talks himself into taking the same bold tack, he will learn the hard way. Green Bay’s kickoff coverage has given McCarthy reason to feel confident, limiting returns to an average of 22.56 yards per kickoff. Mason Crosby has helped with seven touchbacks and 11 out of 23 kickoffs into the end zone. But preparing for Hester poses a challenge as difficult as the Bears have in preparing for Favre.
“You don’t just line up and say I’m not going to kick the ball to the guy and it’s that easy,” McCarthy said.
“Everyone would have done it already.”
There are other people involved for the Bears who do their own planning and executing to make Hester look good. Brendon Ayanbadejo. Jamar Williams. Rod Wilson. Israel Idonije. Hester calls them his stimulant.
“We kind of feed off each other,” he said. “When we’re going out there, a lot of players come to me and say, ‘Just follow me, I’ve got it.’ It gives you a lot of joy that you have players like that who are looking forward to the return game.”
There isn’t much else to look forward to Sunday night for a Bears team lost on offense, hurt on defense and in need of its special teams to save a dying season.
Point is, Hester scores more of them
People often compare Devin Hester to all-time great return men such as Gale Sayers, Deion Sanders, Dante Hall, Billy “White Shoes” Johnson and Brian Mitchell, but the truth is Hester has a higher TD-per-return rate than anyone in NFL history.
%% PLAYER KOR PR TOT TDS RATE
Devin Hester* 42 65 108 9 12.0
Gale Sayers 91 27 118 8 14.8
Deion Sanders 155 212 367 9 40.8
Dante Hall 376 198 574 12 47.8
Billy “White Shoes” Johnson 123 282 405 8 50.6
Brian Mitchell 607 463 1,070 13 82.3
* — includes playoffs, one FG ret.
FootballOutsiders.com, NFL.com %%
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dhaugh@tribune.com
