That’s what I’m hoping for as a no 5/6 WR and potential punt returner.
As a general question to everyone, who’s the KR this year. Presumably Cyrus Jones is in lead position for the PR job (ugh) but who takes Lewis’ role?
Aside from Edelman (and Slater from his first couple seasons), there doesn't appear to be a huge amount of return experience, much less NFL return experience, on the roster at the moment.
Devin McCourty had 27 KR @ 24.2 ypr for the Pats in back in 2012, but only 14 total KR (20 ypr) since.
... Jason has had 4 KRs total in his NFL career.
Chung contributed 7 KR (20 ypr) back in 2014.
Cy Jones: (NFL) 8 KR @22.5 ypr; 11 PR @ 4.2 ypr
... Alabama: 14 KR @23.4 ypr; 4 PR @20.5 ypr yds in 2014
Rex Burkhead: (NFL) 7 KR @ 18.7 ypr (6 with Cinci)
... Nebraska: 1 KR/15 yds;
11 PR @10.6 ypr
College experience ...
McCarron: 5 KR @ 30.6 ypr thru 2016; 7 PR @ 21.1 ypr (1 TD) in 2016 alone.
Jomal Wiltz: 12 KR @ 22.6 ypr in 2015 (zero in 2016)
David Jones: 9 KR @ 19.3 ypr (none after 2014); 11 PR @ 16.1 ypr (1 TD) thru 2016
James White: 37 KR @ 20.1 ypr thru 2012
Gillislee: 9 KR @ 19.8 ypr thru 2012
Dorsett: 25 KR @ 19.1 ypr thru 2014; 25 PR @ 5.4 ypr
I hadn't realize before now that Dorsett had so much college experience returning both kicks and punts (not that he was great at it). If he works on that this off-season, it could really help his roster chances.
By the same token, McCarron is probably going to need to be more than just a return specialist to make the roster.
In his 10-minute response discussing the differences between returning kicks and returning punts during a presser last season (somebody asked a good question!), he definitely made it seem like returning punts was much more a technical specialty than returning kicks (requires better "vision" to see a seam, and a quicker first step; far less time to make a decision; less opportunity for blockers to set up a return, etc.). So, replacing a kick returner (Lewis) may not be quite as difficult as replacing Amendola's punt returns.
