The Associated Press began naming an All-Pro kickoff returner in 1976; despite the name, it’s far from clear whether the voters drew a distinction between punt and kickoff returns. ^[1]In 2011, Patrick Peterson received the most votes of any kickoff returner, and he was therefore the first-team All-Pro selection. Only problem: Peterson, who had a magnificent year as a punt … Continue reading That was due in large part to some great returners beginning to enter the league. The previous year, Cardinal Terry Metcalf set an NFL with 2,462 all-purpose yards, and he ranked 3rd in punt return average and 2nd in kickoff return average. In Houston, Billy Johnson, of white shoes fame, had three punt returns for a touchdown in 1975. Pro Football Weekly named Johnson as its All-Pro returner that year, and beginning in ’76, the AP followed suit with a special slot dedicated to kickoff returners.

In the inaugural year, Denver’s Rick Upchurch earned first-team All-Pro honors from the Associated Press; that would happen two more times in his career. In the ’90s, Mel Gray also earned 3 first-team All-Pro returner nods from the Associated Press, and Devin Hester (’06, ’07, ’10) would later become the third player to earn three such honors.

In 2013, a rookie Cordarrelle Patterson earned 36 of 50 votes for the All-Pro kickoff returner spot, with a number of the other 14 votes actually going to punt returners. In 2015, Tyler Lockett (23 votes) was the AP’s first-team All-Pro returner, and he was great on both punt and kickoff returns that season. Patterson (who doesn’t return punts) averaged 6 more yards per kickoff return than Lockett, and received 15 votes; Darren Sproles (who didn’t return kickoffs) was the game’s top punt returner, and received 8 votes. Lockett was a worthy choice as the top returner overall, but Patterson was the top kickoff returner and Sproles the top punt returner.

Beginning in 2016, the Associated Press finally decided to fix this problem, and created two slots on the roster, naming a first-team punt returner and a first-team kickoff returner. But, of course, that arguably dilutes the value of being an All-Pro returner, since it’s easier now to make the AP’s All-Pro roster. In 2016, Patterson received 41 of 50 votes for the kickoff returner slot, while Tyreek Hill was a unanimous choice for the All-Pro punt returner position. The odds are that Hill would have been the first-team pick in ’16 had the AP not added the extra returner slot. In 2019, Patterson was again the clear choice as the game’s top kickoff returner, giving him 3 such AP first-team honors on his resume. And then yesterday, it was announced that Patterson again (and justifiably) ran away with the first-team All-Pro kickoff return honors.

Patterson is the most dominant kickoff returner of our era, and it is not particularly close. The graph below shows the 97 players with at least 25 kickoff returns since Patterson entered the NFL in 2013. Patterson has averaged 1.6 more yards per return than any other player, and he has nearly 2,000 more return yards than anyone else. He has 8 kickoff return touchdowns over the last 8 seasons; no other player has more than two. See if you can spot Patterson in the graph below.

The table below shows the Associated Press All-Pro returners for each season since 1976.

As always, please leave your thoughts in the comments. For the pre-1976 era, who would have likely been the choices?

1975: As written above,  Terry Metcalf and Billy Johnson both had monster years; Pro Football Weekly chose Metcalf, while the Football News chose Johnson.

1974: Probably Dick Jauron, who averaged 17 yards per punt return and was the Football News choice and a Pro Bowler; Metcalf was the second-team choice from FN.

1973: No organization named a returner before 1974, but Herb Mul-Key (Washington) and Greg Pruitt (Cleveland) were the Pro Bowl returners.

1972: Ron Smith led the NFL in kickoff return average and was named to the Pro Bowl; Mercury Morris and Bruce Laird both also made it as returners.

1971: Speedy Duncan led the NFL in punt return average and was fifth in kickoff return average; he and Morris made the Pro Bowl.

1970: Cecil Turner had 4 kickoff return touchdowns, while Lemar Parrish, who scored on both punt and kickoff returners, was the other Pro Bowl choice.

In 2015, Patterson again led the league in return average at 31.8, this time with 1,019 yards and two scores on 32 returns.

In 2016, Patterson repeated as kickoff returner champion, averaging 31.7 yards per return on 25 returns.

In 2017, Patterson was on the verge of a three-peat. Through 14 games, Patterson was averaging 28.3 yards per kickoff return, giving him a slight lead on Rams returner Pharoh Cooper.

And over the last two weeks of the season, Cooper saw his kickoff return average drop, while Patterson had one more return for 29 yards. Therefore, Patterson must have threepeated in the category of average kickoff return, right?

Well, not exactly. Through 14 games, Patterson had 18 returns, or 1.29 per team game. He finished the year with 19 returns, or 1.19 per team game. The problem is that the minimum number of kickoff returns to qualify for the league crown is 1.25 per team game. So Patterson failed to qualify by one return; if he had returned one additional kickoff for even 11 yards, he would have three-peated.

Patterson had 19 of the Raiders 34 kickoff returns. The real problem is the era: we are no longer in an era where the minimum should be 1.25 kickoff returns per team game. Why? Last year, just 12 players qualified! In 2010, there were 39 players who qualified, but in 2017, the limit would have needed to be dropped to single digits to get 39 players qualifying for that crown.

So what happened? Well, before the 2011 season, the NFL moved the kickoff from the 30 to the 35-yard line, which resulted in more touchbacks and fewer kickoff returns. And before the 2016 season, the NFL moved the starting field position after a touchback from the 20 up to the 25-yard line. Combined, those two changes have had quite the impact on the number of kickoff returns. The graph below shows the number of kickoff returns had by the average team in each season since 1950, with non-16 game seasons prorated to 16 games.

(You may recall the rule change in 1994 moving kickoffs back from the 35-yard line to the 30-yard line resulted in quite the spike in 1994).

Whether or not kickoff returns are a good thing is up to each individual fan to decide.  But one thing is clear: having a minimum threshold of 1.25 kickoff returns per team game to qualify for the kickoff return crown is going to drastically reduce the number of eligible players.  There were just 10 qualifying players in 2016, and that number has been less than 15 in each of the last three seasons.