Bears head coach Marc Trestman isn't afraid of making some changes around his team. One of the changes we'll see when football returns later in the year is Devin Hester back returning kicks as his primary job. The move makes a lot of sense, but until now, we weren't sure how Hester felt about the news.
Yesterday, Hester said in an interview on WLS in Chicago that he was just fine with focusing on the return game.
“My door is not closed on the offensive side of the ball. I’m still open to it,” Hester said, via the Chicago Sun-Times. “But as of right now, I know that I’m going here first into this season as the main kickoff return man. As of right now, that’s my main focus – to get my swagger back.”
Hester will add an additional dimension to the Bears' attack. He forces teams to kick away from him, and trying to avoid him can sometimes lead to shanked punts or poor kickoffs. When Hester does get his hands on the ball, he's the most dangerous returned in the game, and even when he's not taking kicks back for touchdowns, he rarely fails to make the first couple of tacklers miss.
Hester has 18 career return touchdowns to date, and those returns have often helped out the Bears' anemic offensive unit. Any offense will be more effective when presented with shorter fields, and the move to put Hester as the Bears' primary returner instead of splitting time with the offense will likely help the Bears' average field position.
