PHILADELPHIA − Britain Covey’s eyes never wandered in the interminable two seconds or so when Jack Fox’s punt had reached its apex and was coming down toward him.
As the Eagles punt returner was waiting for the ball, teammate Zach Pascal, trying to block a Lions defender, had bumped into Covey. Still, Covey kept his eyes on the punt and caught the ball for a fair catch at the Eagles’ 17-yard line early in the fourth quarter.
Had Covey botched the catch, the Lions could have recovered near the Eagles’ goal line, and that could’ve been disastrous. The Eagles were leading by 10 points in a game they would eventually win 38-35.
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For Covey, it wasn’t a big deal, even though it was his first NFL game, at an unbearably loud Ford Field.
In fact, earlier this week, Eagles special teams coordinator Michael Clay described how wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead would “throw cones, bags, shields at them” as punts were coming toward them.
Covey said that was nothing compared with the exercise balls University of Utah defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley would throw at the punt returners during practice while they were catching punts.
“It would hit me right as I’d catch it,” Covey said. “He’d throw those balls at me, throw cones up in the air, all those different things. It’s really something you practice. During the summer, I would catch 50 punts per day. I wanted it to be second nature to where you don’t ever think about catching the ball. You just (snaps fingers) do it instinctively.”
But Covey said there’s more to it than just catching the ball, which is difficult enough.
“For me, there’s an art to it,” he said. “With punt returns, a lot of times people will think that anyone can go back there to catch a punt. You don’t realize how many moving pieces there are, and it’s really a skill that you can kind of divide up into sections.
“The first two seconds is the snap up to the time (the punter) kicks it. Then the next two seconds is the time he kicks it until the ball’s apex. Then the two seconds from the apex down.
“And so you compartmentalize it like that.”
The first two seconds, Covey is scanning the field, looking to see where the blockers are aligned and where the opponent is attacking from. The next two seconds, he’s judging where the ball is going to land and trying to get within a 5-yard radius.
After that, Covey said: “The only thing you’re worrying about is the ball. … That’s why the focus is there.”
The Eagles desperately need that from their punt returner.
For the last two seasons, they went through the trials and tribulations with Jalen Reagor. There was the upside, when Reagor returned a punt 73 yards for a touchdown in a December 2020 game against Green Bay. But there was also the downside, like against Tampa Bay in the playoffs last January, when he fumbled a punt that led to a Buccaneers touchdown, then muffed another one.
Even a fair catch would become an adventure at times.
And while Clay wasn’t asked to compare Covey to Reagor, he did provide a characterization of Covey that shows how much trust the Eagles have in Covey, even though he’s technically still on the practice squad.
“He’s cool, calm, and collected,” Clay said. “It’s like having a veteran out there. He catches it, gets downhill.”
But there’s more to it than that. Covey said he hates players who call for fair catches rather than attempt even a short return that can hurt their return average. He likens it to an NBA player refusing to heave the ball toward the basket at the end of a quarter because that would negatively affect their field-goal percentage.
Covey, for example, passed up a fair catch for a 2-yard return, saying, “You can fall forward for 2 yards. It’s better than nothing.”
In all, Covey returned two kicks for 13 yards, an average of 6.5 yards per return.
“Nothing bugs me more,” Covey said about the basketball player who won’t take that length-of-the-court heave. “That’s one of my pet peeves in all of sports. It’ll affect his field goal percentage. That is selfish.”
At Utah, Covey returned 92 punts, averaged 11.9 yards per return and had four touchdowns.
The Eagles were no doubt impressed. That’s why they gave a 5-foot-8, 173-pounder a chance to make the 53-man roster upon signing him last spring as an undrafted free agent.
Covey, meanwhile, made sure he was ready. He said he caught at least 50 punts every day during the offseason back home in Utah. Often, he would work with BYU punter Ryan Rehkow. When Rehkow couldn’t make it, Covey would hire a high school punter to work with him.
Covey also would seek advice from Vai Sikahema, a well-known Eagles punt returner in the 1980s, whom Covey said is a close family friend. When Covey signed with the Eagles, he worked with another legendary punt returner in former Eagle Darren Sproles.
Sikahema, of course, was known for punching the goal posts after he scored a touchdown. Is that something Covey would do?
“He has given me permission,” Covey said with a laugh. But there’s one thing Covey won’t try to emulate from Sikahema.
“I’m not going to box Jose Canseco,” he said.
As it turned out, Sikahema knocked out Canseco in a celebrity boxing match in 2008. Covey has enough to worry about catching punts with various objects − and teammates − coming right at him.
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.