The Arizona Cardinals had pretty good special teams play for most of the season. Yes, there were some early missed field goals, but they blocked field goals, had punt returns for touchdowns and they had a couple of players that were outstanding and making tackles.
Safety Hamza Abdullah and linebacker O'Brien Schofield both were listed among the best tacklers on special teams in Football Outsiders' piece on special teams tackles.
Both Schofield and Abdullah each had 12 special teams tackles, which placed them in the top 30 of all players. They had a stop rate (tackles made that resulted in below average returns or that resulted in fumbles) of 50 and 58 percent respoectively.
Schofield will be back in 2012 and will likely see time on special teams.
However, with the addition of James Sanders, the return of Rashad Johnson and the drafting of Justin Bether to play safety, Abdullah looks to be be on the outside looking in.
Granted, there are always players, especially young ones, that can play the transition game, but assuming Abdullah does leave, do you worry that special teams play will suffer? They already saw Sean Considine leave.
will it make a difference, or will someone else or a number of players make up the difference?
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