Kansas City Chiefs’ Dave Toub on Demarcus Robinson’s punt returns: ‘He drives me nuts’
Chiefs fans cringing while watching Demarcus Robinson take a step backward on punt returns before running laterally instead of upfield, or holding the football like a loaf a bread, well, they aren’t alone.
As it turns out, Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub isn’t too fond of Robinson’s tendencies as a punt returner, either.
“He drives me nuts,” Toub said Tuesday. “He really does, to be honest, and he knows it.
“I’d like to see him catch it and keep the ball tight to his body, and he doesn’t do that. I’d like to see him get north and south; he doesn’t do that. So those are the things that we talk about all the time.”
Robinson returned two punts for 5 yards in the Chiefs’ second preseason game last Friday against the Arizona Cardinals.
And none of what the coordinator said Tuesday should be news to Robinson, who enters his sixth season in a Chiefs uniform since being selected in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft. Over that span, Robinson has returned four punts for minus-17 yards and two kickoff returns for 21 yards.
The 6-foot-1, 203-pound Robinson has shown he can be a threat in the open field at his natural wide receiver position, averaging 11.8 per catch in his career.
But does he have a future as a return man? Sounds like it will depend on the situation.
“He’s a great make-you-miss guy,” Toub said. “There’s probably nobody better, but he’s got to learn to get up the field. He’s a good catcher, so in an emergency situation you could use him as a guy that can get you through a game. But as an every-down guy, he’s got a way to go.”
The Chiefs know what they have in Mecole Hardman as their primary punt returner and likely Byron Pringle as their lead kickoff returner.
Toub, however, has used the preseason to experiment in punt and kickoff formations, such as incorporating Robinson in the return game. In the Chiefs’ first two exhibition games, neither Hardman nor Pringle returned any kicks.
The approach is likely to stick for Friday night’s preseason finale against the Minnesota Vikings at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
“Pretty much the same thing,” Toub said. “The good thing is we have a lot of guys to choose from. We can really get a good look at guys. We’ve been getting a lot of returns, so it’s been good for us.”
Through two preseason games, Toub has rotated Robinson, cornerback Mike Hughes, wide receiver Gehrig Dieter and wide receiver Darrius Shepherd as punt returners. Shepherd, Hughes, wide receiver Darius Fountain, running back Jerick McKinnon and running back Darwin Thompson have all logged snaps as kickoff returners.
Among that group, Hughes has caught Toub’s eye as a potential fill-in as needed.
“He’s a talented returner,” Toub said. “He gets up the field north and south. He looks for that, north and south, right away, whereas he can probably press the edges a little bit more. He’s talented and we like what we see in him going forward.”
