On the virtues of being dependable & expendable

Bryan Walters runs for his life (Photo credit: TNB)

Bryan Walters earns a living in the NFL through hard work, and by being both dependable and expendable.

A distinguished three-sport athlete at Juanita High School, Walters had hoped to attend WSU—his parents’ alma mater—but the Cougars considered him too small and declined to give him a scholarship. Instead, he caught on at Cornell, where he set a school record for all-purpose yards and for kickoff and punt return yardage.

Unfortunately, his college resume failed to impress the NFL. Only San Diego scouted his pro day. Walters made the Chargers as an undrafted rookie free agent and saw limited action in three games before getting stuck on the practice squad for the rest of 2010 and all of 2011, after which the team released him. Walters tried out in Minnesota, but the Vikings cut him at the end of camp, so he sat out the entire 2012 season.

A lifelong Seahawks fan, Walters signed with his hometown team in 2013, but spent most of the season on the practice squad. In 2014, though, he became a major contributor as Seattle’s primary punt returner. His secret: dependability and expendability.

Walters won the job not because he posed the most dynamic return threat on the team--far from it. Faster and shiftier returners on the roster included Percy Harvin, Paul Richardson, Doug Baldwin, Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas III. Early in the season, Seattle coaches let Sherman and Thomas compete for the punt return gig, but they eventually realized that it would be asinine to risk injury to All-Pro pillars of the Legion of Boom on special teams. Ditto for Doug Baldwin, the team's #1 wideout. Harvin and Richardson specialized in kickoff returns.

Catching punts is much trickier, because there's more English on the ball. Worse, greater hang time gives coverage units more time to close the shorter distance between the line of scrimmage and the ball, so the returner is much more likely to get blasted. This forces punt returners to make a split-second choice between calling a fair catch or running with the ball. The decision looks more straightforward from the serenity of your couch than it does when you're peering up into the lights, trying to track the trajectory of the ball while stealing glances at the crazed headhunters sprinting toward you with evil intent.

Walters erred on the side of caution, returning only slightly more punts (27) than he fair-caught (23). 

Among players who returned 10 or more punts in 2014, Walters ranked 29th in the NFL in average yardage, with an anemic 7.7 yards. 

However, he led the league in securing possession, with zero muffs and zero fumbles. Only two other players in the NFL returned as many punts without a turnover that year. The returners who lead the league in punt return yardage and touchdowns also tend to fumble a lot more.

Walters also returned a couple of kickoffs and caught a few passes on offense out of the slot.

This season, Walters joined a small exodus of ex-Seahawks who migrated to Jacksonville to play for ex-Seattle defensive coordinator Gus Bradley. He still returns punts and kickoffs occasionally, but Walters works primarily as a reserve slot receiver for the Jaguars. Against Houston last month, he caught a career-high eight passes for 87 yards.

Happy Belated Birthday to my man Bryan Walters (born November 4, 1987), a Seahawk from 2012-14.