During a radio interview last week, Giants head coach Pat Shurmur said “there’s no reason we can’t” use wide receiver Odell Beckham as a punt returner.
Shurmur said the team would be strategic about using Beckham in that fashion and didn’t come up with a reason to use Beckham as a punt returner in Sunday’s season opener. If he does do so in the future, some will wonder why he didn’t use Beckham as a returner in the fourth quarter.
Kaelin Clay muffed a punt in the final minute of the game and the Jaguars recovered to ice a 20-15 victory. Shurmur said after the game that he gave no thought to using Beckham in place of Clay for that punt and it’s hard to think of too many scenarios when you’d use Beckham as a returner if that wasn’t one of them.
There are 15 more games to answer that question, however.
