With Cutler the expectation is all that potential will be realized. Now I will concede maybe Hester got open deep because no one feared Orton. It’s certainly a possible part of the equation. With Cutler that won’t be the case, so the secondary will take deeper drops and Hester won’t be open deep as much as he was last year. I say great. If so, Olsen will become a superstar. Forte’s receiving numbers will actually improve and even Davis will catch undercoverage balls all day long.

As for his punting. I will say he was more tentative and trying to run back to break something and hopefully they’ll get him more north/south. But two things. First, what Hester did his first two years frankly was unsustainable. To expect that every year is unrealistic. He was bound to regress. Guy’s hit .400 over the course of a few weeks, maybe even a month or two, but they don’t even come close to doing for a year and certainly not year after year. Second, yes Manning basically replicated Hester on kickoffs, but I didn’t see the punt blocking as being as good last year. As special as Hester is/was, you still need the 10 other guys to do a credible job and it didn’t seem that credible last year. I also think one of his biggest returns last year (40 yards or so) was called back on a bogus or non-blocking penalty.

So, all in all, everyone needs to improve. The blocking needs improvement and Hester has to stop dancing and just get up field at full speed. I think those two things have more of an impact than him being tired or distracted just because he’s a full-time receiver. That storyline is lazy and overblown.