This kind of slipped under the radar yesterday but it could be significant.

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolp...een-in-practice-today-cornerback-dimitri.html

Here's the thing. Davone Bess is gone. He's not able to share time with Mike Gillislee as a punt returner.

Who could share time with Marcus Thigpen as a punt returner? Who would they trust to do it?

I don't want to go into 99th level analysis here but this preseason there have only been three players that have gone back there to catch punts. They are DeAndre Presley, Marcus Thigpen and Chad Bumphis. Presley did the enitre first game, Bumphis did the enitre second game, and the third game was the exact "committee" approach that Rizzi talked about between Chad Bumphis and Marcus Thigpen.

So I'm going to say if we get to this Bucs game and we see Chad Bumphis back there for any of the punt returns, I think that's it. He's in.

On the other hand, if the Dolphins have Rishard Matthews or Brian Hartline back there with Marcus Thigpen against the Bucs, that would be a big blow to Chad Bumphis' case for making the team.

Chad Bumphis did have that muffed punt return that he recovered on his own against the Jaguars. His 17 yards on 2 punt returns during the Jags game aside from the muff was not bad. Darren Rizzi could have just said to hell with him for the rest of the preseason on punt returns because of the muff...but he didn't. Bumphis once again was back there for punt returns against the Texans.

He fair caught a 37 yard punt at the Miami 36 yard line. Nothing bad stands out about that. He fair caught a ball at his own 9 yard line but the punt was even noted in the gamebook for having an outstanding 4.91 second hang time. He returned a 42 yard punt 4 yards for a 38 yard net. Finally, he fair caught a 47 yard punt at the Miami 21 yard line. If I recall right, and I might not, I thought that one might have actually been returned.

It just seems to me that Darren Rizzi wouldn't say that they'll be going with a committee approach like last year on punt returns unless he already had in mind which player is going to share those returns with Thigpen. Maybe he's thinking it'll be Brian Hartline or Rishard Matthews, but the guy he's been having get all the work to the point where he's hardly even working on offense is Chad Bumphis.

 

They had a committee last year on punt returns because they felt they couldn't trust Thigpen to make good decisions or catch and secure the football in certain punt situations. They got Thigpen the choicest of punt return opportunities so it's not surprising he had a good punt return average.

You could probably plot punt return averages by position on the field on a graph and you'd see a pretty clear pattern for average return based on position on the field where the offense is punting from. That's what I mean by Thigpen having the most choice punt return opportunities.

 

How is what I said extreme, in any way whatsoever? Yes you are correct that Thigpen got the far majority of the return opportunities. But your numbers omit fair catches...which is kind of the point. Davone Bess was actually back to return a total of 22 punts to Thigpen's 32 punts. Bess fair caught 18 punts and returned 4. Thigpen returned 26 punts and fair caught 6 of them. The extreme disparity only further illustrates my point that Thigpen was given the best return opportunities.

 

You could look at it one of two ways. It's true Chad Bumphis has not gotten many offensive snaps the past two games and you could think of it as them not giving him opportunities to make the team as a receiver.

However, the past two games he's been the primary punt returner, and from Darren Rizzi's words they have it in mind that they're going with a committee approach at punt returner this year. So one could argue they're giving Chad Bumphis as much opportunity to make the roster in the way that he would make it, as they are Brian Tyms in the way that Brian would make it.