Richard Hightower-Chicago Bears Special Teams Coach

It's like they just work on the alignment side of special teams.

The direct snap 70 yard TD is simply unreal!

ST fumbles, missed PAT, there are high school teams that play ST better than we are playing right now.

Originally posted by Waterbear:
The reason I believe Kyle won't fire Hightower is due to the fact that he knows his own philosophy in roster building is to essentially ignore special teams.

I believe he's said that he wants players to be able to contribute on offense and defense which is why he wouldn't draft a player to just be a return specialist or gunner.

Special teams will never be a focus under Kyle. Which is one of his biggest flaws imo.

Agreed about Kyle's focus. Hope your wrong about that meaning he won't fire Hightower for cause. We can't keep giving away games due to ST.

What's Brad Seely up to now a days

Not only is our Special Ed teams the worst in the league, This guy is arguably THE reason we lost both games to Seattle. NEEDS TO BE FIRED IMMEDIATELY!!!!

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by mitpdub:
Not to give this guy a big out, but how much did losing Cannon hurt us yesterday ? Benjamin as a backup returner was horrible, Hasty was much better. In general our team only has one plan for everything and the next man up never seems to step up when put on the spot.

Yeah, that's literally THE issue.

Both his kickers have weak kickoff legs and instead of kicking it lower and out through the back of the EZ, Hightower still has these kicks landing from the 1 yard line to the 6 for an immediate return.

That instantly leads to Cannon having to run down and make a tackle. He's done.

Hightower then pivots to Benjamin who's been active 3 minutes all year and looks completely ill-prepared and fumbled instantly. 7 points the other way.

That leads to him then using Hasty who's just come off I.R.

Aiyuk still has no idea when to field a punt and when to let it go. The gunners tackle him 100% instantly anyhow.

Hightower has never run a trick play even with a Special Teams Weapon. And his unit is even more ill-prepared to guard against one.

He has zero backup plan for WHEN Gould goes down. Still missing crucial FG's and extra points.

Watches returners have early success and then acts surprised when the same returner breaks a 99 yarder because again, he can't figure out that a lower trajectory will help make the ball go further and out the back of the EZ.

How many times was our offense stuck inside our own 5 yard line last night? When was the last time we experienced that from a punt?

He's been given record breaking college punt returners and they've all gotten worse here.

This guy isn't useless. He's destructive.

They need Matt Araiza from San Diego State. He has crazy power as a punter, and he kicks field goals. Not sure if he is good enough to kick field goals in NFL, but is better than Wishnowsky at field goals if the kicker is hurt.

With decent special teams the Niners might be 8-4 right now. Think about that.

Can someone tell me why our kickoffs never go for touchbacks?

Is wish's let not strong enough or does Hightower think he has some special super secret strategy?

Originally posted by Faithful4ever:
With decent special teams the Niners might be 8-4 right now. Think about that.

That's not a joke either.

Originally posted by Dsoto87:
Can someone tell me why our kickoffs never go for touchbacks?

Is wish's let not strong enough or does Hightower think he has some special super secret strategy?

Wish is the problem

Originally posted by pdfortune:

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by mitpdub:
Not to give this guy a big out, but how much did losing Cannon hurt us yesterday ? Benjamin as a backup returner was horrible, Hasty was much better. In general our team only has one plan for everything and the next man up never seems to step up when put on the spot.

Yeah, that's literally THE issue.

Both his kickers have weak kickoff legs and instead of kicking it lower and out through the back of the EZ, Hightower still has these kicks landing from the 1 yard line to the 6 for an immediate return.

That instantly leads to Cannon having to run down and make a tackle. He's done.

Hightower then pivots to Benjamin who's been active 3 minutes all year and looks completely ill-prepared and fumbled instantly. 7 points the other way.

That leads to him then using Hasty who's just come off I.R.

Aiyuk still has no idea when to field a punt and when to let it go. The gunners tackle him 100% instantly anyhow.

Hightower has never run a trick play even with a Special Teams Weapon. And his unit is even more ill-prepared to guard against one.

He has zero backup plan for WHEN Gould goes down. Still missing crucial FG's and extra points.

Watches returners have early success and then acts surprised when the same returner breaks a 99 yarder because again, he can't figure out that a lower trajectory will help make the ball go further and out the back of the EZ.

How many times was our offense stuck inside our own 5 yard line last night? When was the last time we experienced that from a punt?

He's been given record breaking college punt returners and they've all gotten worse here.

This guy isn't useless. He's destructive.

They need Matt Araiza from San Diego State. He has crazy power as a punter, and he kicks field goals. Not sure if he is good enough to kick field goals in NFL, but is better than Wishnowsky at field goals if the kicker is hurt.

Oh yeah? Hopefully we take him with our 2nd rounder. Haha

Fire this m'fer

Seems pretty unanimous that this guy is trash and needs to be fired.

I dont know a lot about ST
i could even say i dont know a lot about football X and O's.
but i can recognise shlt when i see it
and boy those niners ST looks like it big time
i have the feeling it is due to its coach
the fact Kyle has still this guy around the facilities after 4+ miserable years of ST tells you a lot about Kyle
either he dont care / dont know about ST or he is too stubborn / loyal
Kyle thought about packing 3 ones for Trey to replace an underperforming Jimmy.
i wonder what he has in store for Hightower. Can someone tell him draft picks aren't needed ?
i hope he's not like his father. I remember Mike refused to fire his DC when the broncos D was horrendous. His team didnt produce enough as part of that and Bowlen had no choice but to fire him.

Just a reminder for y'all. If Hightower gets poached elsewhere, we get a 3rd rd comp pick. Somebody come up wiht an available ST coach right this moment, then ok…but good luck with that.

Yes we need a huge improvement. Huge on STs. Only avenue i see open at moment is HC. Yes kyle has to eat words and basically take over STs, and at least a couple times/ week, maybe for a couple hours after rest of team is gone. He needs to both vet the players, eg, "Is Xyz capable of handling KOs and will he hang onto ball". That obviously hasn't been done because all one has to do is look.

2nd he needs to go over KO coverage , PUNT COVERAGE (they obviously were not aware of their D set on the punt when the punter runs one in for a TD). No matter what, that cannot happen. Then there are the personal fouls. Adding 15 yds to a bad punt coverage is estupido. Taking away 15 yds on a good punt coverage is dumber yet. Our personal fouls literally beg the imagination and STs aren't alone here. So capt kyle, please reinstruct every single day O,D, ST, no blocking behind the back, no holding….well, you know the story.

Sorry , but changing out ST at present not doable, and we have to wait til end of season. But until that time, Kyle is going to have to coach and game plan for ST. Because right now ST coach is not doing his job. Kyle has never subscribed to ST is 1/3 of game. But it is. So…take care of it.

I started this thread almost 3 years to the day and it hasn't changed at all. That's 100% on Kyle.