Returner Recap and Latest News: Week 13

Footballguys Staff's Returner Recap and Latest News: Week 13 Footballguys Staff Published 11/25/2014

Individual returner projections for each week are included in your MyFBG projections and rankings automatically. My returner projections are included in the default projection set with David Dodds' offensive predictions. Choose David as the source, and then choose a scoring system in which you have included points for return yards.

The base return projections for a week can be seen on this page. You can also go to the content for the week and use the Returner Projections link to get to that page.

UPDATES

Marcus Thigpen was released by Tampa Bay, and then picked up from waivers by Buffalo. There's a good chance Thigpen may handle returns for Buffalo this week.

With Thigpen gone, Bobby Rainey and Mike James are two players who may see returns for Tampa Bay, though like most of these situations, unless the coach reveals his plans to the media, it is difficult to predict with confidence who the returner will be.

Oakland has said that Travis Carrie will resume handling punts but that Charles Woodson will handle kickoffs. However, since then George Atkinson has been activated from the practice squad. Atkinson is a returner as well and could see some of the kickoff returns.

Week 12 Recap

Top Performers

The Chargers own the league's worst touchback percentage on kickoffs, which often spells good news for opposing kick returners. That was the case in Week 12 when Benny Cunningham of the Rams returned 5 kicks for a league best 133 return yards. Second behind Cunningham in total yards was a very familiar name: Josh Cribbs. Cribbs was signed by the Colts to bolster their special teams, and responded with 2 kick returns for 64 yards and 5 punt returns for 48 yards for a total of 112 return yards.

Josh Huff was not only third in total return yards, but was the lone returner to find the end zone. Huff took a kickoff back 107 yards for a score as the Eagles topped the Titans.

Dwayne Harris led all punt returners with 68 yards gained on his 4 returns for the Cowboys, followed by the 50 punt return yards of Philadelphia's Darren Sproles.

Baltimore Ravens returner Jacoby Jones continues to lead the NFL in total return yards. Another Jones, this one Adam Jones of Cincinnati, has been steadily climbing the leaderboard and is now in fourth behind Jarvis Landry and Devin Hester.

All Week 12 Returners

Here are all returners for Week 12.

RankPLAYERTEAMKick RetKR YdsKR TDPunt RetPR YdsPR TDTotal YdsTotal TDs
1 Benny Cunningham STL 5 133 0 0 0 0 133 0
2 Josh Cribbs IND 2 64 0 5 48 0 112 0
3 Josh Huff PHI 1 107 1 0 0 0 107 1
4 Adam Jones CIN 3 84 0 3 20 0 104 0
5 Omar Bolden DEN 3 100 0 0 0 0 100 0
6 Preston Parker NYG 4 99 0 0 0 0 99 0
7 Carlos Hyde SFO 4 98 0 0 0 0 98 0
8 Devin Hester ATL 4 84 0 1 12 0 96 0
9 Leon Washington TEN 3 94 0 0 0 0 94 0
10 Danny Amendola NWE 1 81 0 3 9 0 90 0
11 Dwayne Harris DAL 1 22 0 4 68 0 90 0
12 Percy Harvin NYJ 5 83 0 0 0 0 83 0
13 Cordarrelle Patterson MIN 2 75 0 0 0 0 75 0
14 Knile Davis KAN 2 65 0 0 0 0 65 0
15 Darren McFadden OAK 3 59 0 0 0 0 59 0
16 Marcus Thigpen TAM 3 42 0 2 12 0 54 0
17 Jacoby Jones BAL 2 52 0 2 0 0 52 0
18 De'Anthony Thomas KAN 1 48 0 2 3 0 51 0
19 Darren Sproles PHI 0 0 0 6 50 0 50 0
20 Chris Polk PHI 2 49 0 0 0 0 49 0
21 Andre Roberts WAS 2 37 0 2 11 0 48 0
22 Frankie Hammond KAN 0 0 0 2 48 0 48 0
23 Antonio Andrews TEN 2 47 0 0 0 0 47 0
24 Marc Mariani CHI 2 46 0 3 0 0 46 0
25 Bishop Sankey TEN 2 45 0 0 0 0 45 0
26 Ted Ginn Jr ARI 2 45 0 0 0 0 45 0
27 Tavon Austin STL 0 0 0 2 44 0 44 0
28 Chris Davis SDG 2 43 0 0 0 0 43 0
29 Jeremy Kerley NYJ 0 0 0 3 42 0 42 0
30 Jarvis Landry MIA 1 20 0 1 17 0 37 0
31 Bryan Walters SEA 0 0 0 2 32 0 32 0
32 Jeremy Ross DET 1 27 0 2 5 0 32 0
33 Brandon Tate CIN 1 25 0 0 0 0 25 0
34 Latavius Murray OAK 1 24 0 0 0 0 24 0
35 Danieal Manning HOU 1 23 0 0 0 0 23 0
36 Marcus Sherels MIN 1 18 0 1 5 0 23 0
37 Adam Thielen MIN 1 21 0 0 0 0 21 0
38 Damien Williams MIA 1 20 0 0 0 0 20 0
39 Micah Hyde GNB 0 0 0 2 20 0 20 0
40 Paul Richardson Jr SEA 1 20 0 0 0 0 20 0
41 Travaris Cadet NOR 1 20 0 0 0 0 20 0
42 Marcus Easley BUF 1 13 0 0 0 0 13 0
43 Chase Ford MIN 1 12 0 0 0 0 12 0
44 Isaiah Burse DEN 0 0 0 3 12 0 12 0
45 Stedman Bailey STL 1 9 0 0 0 0 9 0
46 Dexter McCluster TEN 0 0 0 1 8 0 8 0
47 Perrish Cox SFO 0 0 0 4 8 0 8 0
48 Jalen Saunders NOR 0 0 0 1 7 0 7 0
49 John Conner NYJ 1 7 0 0 0 0 7 0
50 Keshawn Martin HOU 0 0 0 2 7 0 7 0
51 Julian Edelman NWE 0 0 0 1 6 0 6 0
52 Charles Woodson OAK 0 0 0 1 5 0 5 0
53 Fred Jackson BUF 0 0 0 1 5 0 5 0
54 Michael Griffin TEN 0 0 0 1 5 0 5 0
55 Ace Sanders JAX 0 0 0 2 3 0 3 0
56 Randall Cobb GNB 0 0 0 1 3 0 3 0
57 Denarius Moore OAK 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
58 DeSean Jackson WAS 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
59 Keenan Allen SDG 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
60 Shonn Greene TEN 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
61 Zach Ertz PHI 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
62 Odell Beckham NYG 0 0 0 1 -1 0 -1 0
63 Dante Rosario CHI 1 -3 0 0 0 0 -3 0

Returners Year to Date

Here are the top 40 returners for the year based on total return yards.

RKPLAYERTEAMKick RetKR YdsKR TDPunt RetPR YdsPR TDTotal YdsTotal TDs
1 Jacoby Jones BAL 22 686 1 22 163 0 849 1
2 Jarvis Landry MIA 22 675 0 19 160 0 835 0
3 Devin Hester ATL 28 642 0 13 163 1 805 1
4 Adam Jones CIN 17 541 0 17 222 0 763 0
5 Jordan Todman JAX 27 710 0       710 0
6 Dwayne Harris DAL 18 451 0 23 234 0 685 0
7 Benny Cunningham STL 23 664 0       664 0
8 Cordarrelle Patterson MIN 25 636 0       636 0
9 Percy Harvin 2TM 26 617 0       617 0
10 Chris Williams CHI 24 579 1 4 30 0 609 1
11 Andre Roberts WAS 18 412 0 21 172 0 584 0
12 Griff Whalen IND 15 379 0 26 187 0 566 0
13 Jeremy Ross DET 13 326 0 22 209 0 535 0
14 Knile Davis KAN 18 522 1       522 1
15 Solomon Patton 2TM 17 393 0 10 112 0 505 0
16 Bruce Ellington SFO 14 361 0 17 119 0 480 0
17 Leon Washington TEN 20 470 0 2 10 0 480 0
18 Darren Sproles PHI 1 15 0 30 448 2 463 2
19 Latavius Murray OAK 19 429 0       429 0
20 Philly Brown CAR 12 273 0 16 153 1 426 1
21 De'Anthony Thomas KAN 6 232 0 17 167 0 399 0
22 Travis Carrie OAK 9 236 0 16 155 0 391 0
23 Ted Ginn Jr ARI 12 208 0 17 181 1 389 1
24 Chris Polk PHI 11 340 1       340 1
25 Preston Parker NYG 12 285 0 8 53 0 338 0
26 Brandon Tate CIN 13 282 0 7 42 0 324 0
27 C.J. Spiller BUF 10 306 1       306 1
28 Marlon Moore CLE 12 300 0       300 0
29 Walt Powell NYJ 8 233 0 12 48 0 281 0
30 Saalim Hakim NYJ 13 279 0       279 0
31 DuJuan Harris GNB 13 273 0       273 0
32 Marcus Sherels MIN 3 93 0 21 174 0 267 0
33 Travaris Cadet NOR 11 261 0       261 0
34 Michael Cox NYG 11 261 0       261 0
35 Danny Amendola NWE 7 229 0 8 30 0 259 0
36 Julian Edelman NWE       19 257 1 257 1
37 Andre Caldwell DEN 11 252 0       252 0
38 Leodis McKelvin BUF 4 64 0 21 183 0 247 0
39 Micah Hyde GNB 4 96 0 8 144 1 240 1
40 Frankie Hammond KAN 1 37 0 15 200 0 237 0

Week 13 Outlook

Job Changes

De'Anthony Thomas lost some punt returns to Frankie Hammond after losing a dozen yards on one return. He also returned a kickoff after that point, so is definitely still in the mix for Kansas City.

Danny Amendola continued to see more punt returns for the Patriots in Week 12. The Patriots have tended to stick with punt returners in the past, but are quicker to pull a kickoff returner. The return of LeGarrette Blount to the team may spell some risk for Amendola as a kickoff returner. Blount rated highly in yards per kickoff return last season though he failed to produce on special teams in Pittsburgh this year.

In the wake of a season ending injury to Brandin Cooks, the Saints signed Jalen Saunders to handle punt returns. Saunders was highly regarded in the draft as a returner, but failed to produce on the field for the Jets and was released. Travaris Cadet continued to handle kickoff returns.

The Bills have a wealth of potential returners, and this week used running back Fred Jackson to handle punt returns. Though the box score will show Marcus Easley as having the lone kickoff return, Easley was a blocker who handled a short kick. Bryce Brown was the player that Buffalo had intended to handle the return.

Omar Bolden replaced Andre Caldwell as the Broncos kick returner. Bolden had 3 returns for 100 yards, likely enough to give him another chance at the job this week.

INJURIES OF NOTE

Marlon Moore missed Week 12 with a hamstring injury. In his place the Browns used both Taylor Gabriel and Travis Benjamin on kickoff returns.

Chicago's Chris Williams also was inactive due to a hamstring. The Bears brought in Marc Mariani, who returned 2 kickoffs for 46 yards and also 3 punts for no gain.

Oakland is dealing with multiple injuries amongst their returners. Travis Carrie missed his team's game as he deals with an ankle injury. Running back Latavius Murray handled kickoffs before leaving the game with a concussion. The Raiders then turned to Darren McFadden. Head coach Tony Sparano has said that Carrie might return to duty Week 13, though anyone counting on Carrie should keep an eye on the news for any mention whether an increased role on defense may cut into his return duties.

Tennessee was another team dealing with the injury bug. Dexter McCluster suffered a concussion during the Titans game against the Eagles. He will have to progress through the league's concussion protocol to be able to play Week 13. Shonn Greene and Michael Griffin handled punts while McCluster was out of the game. Meanwhile, running back Bishop Sankey handled a few kickoffs in place of Leon Washington before suffering a stinger and being replaced by Antonio Andrews.

Photos provided by Imagn Images
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