New England Patriots: Punt returner for 2020 uncertain

Who will return punts for the New England Patriots in 2020?

The New England Patriots have a major issue to deal with on special teams: who will be their kick and punt returners in 2020? By the end of 2019, they basically had no one they could use in either of those positions who’d be effective.

Julian Edelman will always be the Patriots best punt returner (and kick returner for that matter), as long as he’s on the team. But he is too valuable to be risked on that silly enterprise again. Ever.

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In addition, the use of Mohamed Sanu in that role proved to be costly. Sanu was injured on a punt return and was wholely ineffective for the rest of the season as a result.

Hopefully, he can return to bolster a very unproductive wide receiver corps (outside of Edelman) in 2019. That should be his sole focus.

So who is likely to return punts in 2020?

Last season began with unlikely roster-maker Gunner Olszewski handling the punt return duties for the first 8 games. He had a good 9 yard average over 20 punts before being injured. He’ll compete for that job in 2020.

Olszewski’s main competition this season for that role is likely to be Kyle Dugger, the team’s first draft pick in the second round. Dugger is a safety from a Division II school, Lenoir-Rhyne, but he has a lot going for him in securing the job.

First, Dugger was a high draft pick. Second, he can be counted on to play safety as well as return punts, while Olszewski is a marginal receiver. Third, Dugger has had serious success, at least against lower competition in returning punts. In 2019 he returned 12 punts for an average return of 14.6 yards.

Now that 14.6 yard average is against lower-level competition so it’s not clear at all if it will translate to the NFL. But, let’s hope so.

In any event, there should be healthy competition for punt return duty in camp this season and if both players make the team, it will provide nice redundancy should one or the other get injured. It’s a good situation to have.

New England Patriots 2020 kick returners

NFL rules have made kick returns less important as touchbacks are clearly safer (for returners) and most times an equally effective way to start a drive. Many Patriots kick returns resulted in field positions lower than the 25-yard line. That’s an annoying and counterproductive occurrence.

Unless a kick lands outside the endzone in the field of play, the preferred option should be to take the ball at the 25. Of course, should the Patriots somehow find themselves with a great kick returner in their ranks in camp, then this prohibition might be relaxed. That’s unlikely.

Otherwise, if kicks are in the hands of slow running backs like Brandon Bolden, the option chosen should always be to take the ball at the 25 on a touchback.

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Not rocket science here, just common sense.

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