Jamal Agnew was signed with the hopes that he would return to his Pro Bowl form with the Atlanta Falcons, but that hasn't happened. It is time to cut the losses and move on. The Falcons were taking a chance when they signed Agnew. He hadn't taken the field in two years and just entered his 30s.
Unfortunately, this has been evident on the field. The Dirty Birds should begin exploring alternate possibilities, and and replacement is sitting on the open market in a player this franchise knows too well—former Falcon Avery Williams.
Williams, at this point, is the better option. He is younger and won't be as hesitant as Agnew has been. This move needs to be made to help the struggling special teams return to form.
Falcons must immediately replace Jamal Agnew with Avery Williams
There has been a visible hesitancy to make his way upfield as fast as possible. His decision-making has been slow, costing the Falcons valuable yards.
It makes it worse when the offense has been incapable of producing consistent yards. They have needed all the help they can get from kick and punt returns, but it hasn't come.
As a punt returner, Agnew has averaged 10.7 yards per return, ranking 17th in the NFL (minimum 5 returns). It gets worse as a kick returner; he has averaged 24 yards per return, ranking 63rd. Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid losing those yards with the new kickoff rules.
Arguably, the bigger issue has been his failure to produce explosive returns. He has a long of 17 yards on punts, and has one kick return that went over 40 yards.
Things couldn't get any worse with Williams. The coaching staff has experience with him and he has shown he can be a consistent return man in this league.
This year, the former Falcon returned four punts and five kicks for the Jets before they released him. His average as a punt returner is slightly worse than Agnew's, while the opposite is true as a kick returner. That said, you can't compare the two with the disparity in reps.
And it isn't like this move would affect the offense at all. Agnew has played one offensive snap this year, which is bad considering how thin the Falcons are at wide receiver. The same would be true for Williams, who would sit behind Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier.
Even if they don't bring in their former special teamer, there needs to be a change. They have been one of the NFL's worst return teams, which becomes even more problematic with a struggling offense.