Will DeSean Jackson all but ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Tennessee Titans, Philadelphia Eagles special teams coach Bobby April announced today that CB Jorrick Calvin will assume the punt return duties.
"Yes. Yeah, he’ll be the punt returner and he’s going to do the kick returning, too. He’ll do both. He did a good job [last week]. [He had a] nice return, and had some good blocks. He did a nice job and he did a nice job handling the ball. He’s been a good pick up for us."
Calvin had already been the teams’ primary kick returner for a few weeks, so for now he’ll simply be handling all returns. Last week against Atlanta, Calvin broke off a 44 yard punt return.
April also discussed the threat of Tennessee's return game which, as the Cowboys recently learned, is pretty good.
"Well, you know, this guy they drafted who was not a highly-considered guy is Mariani, [WR] Marc Mariani out of Montana. He was not considered - I mean along with the other guys like [Chiefs DB] Javier Arenas and some of these other guys - man, he's been a big part of their winning some games. He's created a lot of good field position, punt returns he's good; he's got a real knack for it. I'll tell you, maybe because they're built the same and they wear number 83, he's real similar to [Patriots WR] Wes Welker and we know Wes Welker, prior to his great success as a receiver, was a heck of a returner. They're very similar. Their stride length, jersey number, very similar. I wouldn't say he's better than Welker was, but they're very similar. He only has six games under his belt, but he's had six impressive games. They've got a good team. As an organization, they've consistently had good talent from top to bottom. They're more than formidable, that's for sure."