Blows my mind that Cincy wasn’t using Wilson as a Returner before this season. Put him at RB, get him reps…he’ll help you.
People might not have known Wilson prior to the past three weeks against Arizona, Baltimore and Jacksonville when he returned one for 52 yards, took the opening kickoff to the house against the Ravens and was a shoestring away from six against Jacksonville.
He became the NFL’s leading kickoff returner by a long shot in three short weeks after not having returned a kickoff from the back position in a game in the NFL — preseason or otherwise.
Coombs knows Wilson, though. He’s been standing on the table for him since that day he walked into the Pro Day. That’s not just because of the absurd athletic profile he posted that day in Houston with a low 4.3 speed to go with powerful bench and burst numbers.
It’s because he saw a man scrapping at the bottom of the roster, doing everything the right way, improving, never complaining, unrelenting during every practice and never taking a second off. And having very little publicity to show for it other than a yearly story about how he survived the roster bubble.
Wilson may have been relatively anonymous outside the building, but not to his teammates who watched the effort every day. And certainly not to his position coach.