The NFL kick return rate more than doubled under the new kickoff rules last season, with teams logging more kick returns per game (3.8 per team) than any season since 2010.
And as punt returns dropped to their lowest level on record (1.5 per team per game, tied for fewest with 2020 in statistics dating back to 1941, according to Pro Football Reference), the Detroit Lions and others have tweaked their special teams focus this offseason.
“The kick return’s obviously a huge play,” Lions special teams coordinator Dave Fipp said last week. “Kick cover, too, and it is definitely more important than it’s ever been, which is fun. But finding the returner, yeah, obviously to me the returner is going to be crucial. I mean, at that position, those guys are touching the ball quite a bit.”
Seven different players returned kicks for the Lions last season, with running back Jacob Saylors and receiver Tom Kennedy finishing the year as the team’s primary return men.
Saylors averaged 27.2 yards on his 33 returns, one fewer return than the Lions had as a team in 2023-24 seasons combined, while Kennedy averaged 27.9 yards on 16 returns over the season’s final six games.
Kennedy averaged 40 yards on three kick returns in a win over the Dallas Cowboys and should enter training camp as one of the favorites to win the job this fall.
Running back Sione Vaki and receiver Dominic Lovett also fielded kick returns last season. Saylors is competing for the No. 4 running back job with Jabari Small and Kye Robichaux, and the Lions spent a fifth-round pick on receiver Kendrick Law, who had 31 career kick returns in college and at 203 pounds has the build Fipp wants at the position.
“In my opinion, you want a guy who’s durable and be able to take some hits because I think at that position, you are [going to get hit],” Fipp said.
Law dabbled on both kick and punt returns at Kentucky last year and served as Alabama’s primary kick returner in 2023, when he returned 17 kicks for 405 yards.
Lions general manager Brad Holmes said Law first caught his attention in 2024 when he and assistant GM Ray Agnew attended the Georgia-Alabama game.
“I saw him out there on the field and I was just impressed about his build and how explosive he was,” Holmes said. “I had no idea who the player was. And so I just told Ray, I was like, ‘Who’s that Number 1 out there?’ I was calling [Brian] Hudspeth, our college [scouting] director, and I was like, ‘Man, is this guy an underclassman? Is he going to come out?’ And all that. He said, ‘Nah, he’s going to go back to school.’
“I didn’t think about him at all till last fall, and he kind of popped up on that list and I was like, ‘Oh, this is the kid that I saw a year ago at Alabama.’ So I was fired up about just what he did offensively. I had no idea about his special teams ability. And that’s what really elevated him even more, and not just a return [man like Kalif Raymond], but this guy can play gunner. He’s really he’s four-phase special teams player and he’s another one that’s just − he’s a dog, man. He’s a football player.”
Raymond, who signed with the Chicago Bears this offseason, starred as the Lion’s punt returner in 2021-25 but played sparingly on kick returns, returning just nine kicks in his five seasons in Detroit.
Fipp said he envisions new No. 4 receiver Greg Dortch filling a similar role as the Lions’ primary punt returner who contributes sparingly in the kick game.
“At the end of the day, obviously you want great players back there,” Fipp said. “I think it’s going to help push teams to play guys who might be doing a little bit more on the roster on offense, but they have a value for you field position-wise on special teams, too. So we’ll see.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: A look at the Lions’ top options for ‘crucial’ kick return position
Reporting by Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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