2011 Fantasy Football Strategy for Leagues with Points for Kick/Punt Returners

Anyone who is a frequent reader of my Bleacher Report articles or fantasy football blog, GodHatesLosers, will know that I am pretty anti-return yardage in fantasy football.

It is an unjust scoring system when Stefan Logan is the highest fantasy scoring wide receiver on the Detroit Lions rather than Calvin Johnson. And don’t feed me the argument that, “They are an important part of the team and should get points for what they do.”

No. In that case, let’s make a league where you can draft offensive linemen and punters. Their effort affects games. But no one wants to join the league where I’m taking Steve Weatherford in the fourth round because he’s a beast at pinning teams inside the 20.

But it was requested that I throw in an article for the leagues that give points for kick and punt returners, so I’ll write the kick returner article, even though I disagree. I will cater to the requests of the ill-informed minority

A couple important things to note before planning a draft around the return-yardage statistic:

 

1) Kick returners get far more yardage than even the best punt returners, so go for a guy that either has both duties or is just a kick return specialist.

2) This early in the year, so a lot of the returners aren’t settled yet. There are still guys competing for the return spots and some players who used to be returners will likely give up the role to new guys to avoid injury.

Remember Dez Bryant as a returner last season? Lots of teams will likely be leaving the kick return role to specialists this year.

3) The new kickoff rule will likely affect the return yardage statistic negatively. Teams are experimenting in the preseason to see if they will consider running the ball out from five yards back in their own end zone.

It goes without saying that there will be far more touchbacks and far fewer return yards in 2011 than any previous season.

You can trust the consistency of kick returners from year to year. Most defenses don't go from giving up 35 points per game to giving up 13 overnight, so you can trust that the guys who finished in the top 10 return yards last year will be among the best performers this year as well.

Last season’s top performing kick/punt returners:

1. WR Marc Mariani, Tennessee Titans (KR/PR) – 1859 total return yards, 2 TDs
2. WR Stefan Logan, Detroit Lions (KR/PR) – 1810 total return yards, 1 TD
3. RB Leon Washington, Seattle Seahawks (KR/PR) – 1710 total return yards, 3 TDs
4. WR Danny Amendola, St. Louis Rams (KR/PR) – 1594 total return yards, 0 TDs
5. WR Brandon Banks, Washington Redskins (KR/PR) – 1586 total return yards, 1 TD
6. RB LaRod Stephens-Howling, Arizona Cardinals (KR) – 1548 total return yards, 2 TDs
7. WR Brad Smith, Buffalo Bills (KR) – 1432 total return yards, 2 TDs
8. RB Darren Sproles, New Orleans Saints (KR/PR) – 1423 total return yards, 0 TDs
9. WR Eric Weems, Atlanta Falcons (KR/PR) – 1330 total return yards, 2 TDs
10. WR Michael Spurlock, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (KR/PR) – 1322 total return yards, 1 TD
11. WR Ted Ginn, Jr., San Francisco 49ers (KR/PR) – 1313 total return yards, 1 TD
12. WR Jacoby Ford, Oakland Raiders (KR) – 1280 total return yards, 3 TDs
13. RB Bernard Scott, Cincinnati Bengals (KR) – 1257 total return yards, 0 TDs
14. RB Deji Karim, Jacksonville Jaguars (KR) – 1248 total return yards, 0 TDs
15. WR Brandon Tate, New England Patriots (KR) – 1057 total return yards, 2 TDs
16. RB Mike Goodson, Carolina Panthers (KR) – 1048 total return yards, 0 TDs
17. RB C.J. Spiller, Buffalo Bills (KR) – 1014 total return yards, 1 TD
18. WR Joshua Cribbs, Cleveland Browns (KR/PR) – 982 total return yards, 0 TDs
19. WR Percy Harvin, Minnesota Vikings (KR) – 933 total return yards, 1 TD
20. RB/WR Dexter McCluster (KR/PR) – 729 total return yards, 1 TD

There are a handful of guys who will likely be taken in your fantasy football draft anyways because they will get a good amount of points in their wide receiver or running back role without return yards added.

These players were returners last year but might not be filling that role this season: Dez Bryant (might not be a returner), DeSean Jackson (might not be a returner), Percy Harvin (might not be a returner), C.J. Spiller (might not be a returner), Jacoby Ford, Davone Bess, Emmanuel Sanders (might not be a returner), Jacoby Jones (might not be a returner) and Danny Amendola.

The following players will gain points in their regular position but are not as highly ranked as those previously mentioned: Andre Roberts, Devin Hester, Dexter McCluster, Eddie Royal, Joshua Cribbs, Julian Edelman, Mike Goodson, Brad Smith, Darren Spoles.

And then you have the true kick return specialists that you will only see drafted in leagues with return yardages: Marc Mariani, Leon Washington, Stefan Logan, Brandon Banks, Eric Weeks, LaRod Stephens-Howling.

Strategically, it will be important to conduct further research if you are in a return-yardage league. You want to make sure that the guy you are drafting is actually going to be out there returning kicks, so take a glance at the depth chart a few minutes before your draft begins.

The best players to get would be the names that you recognize because you will be getting return yardage points along with their regular RB or WR stats. Players on this list would include Percy Harvin, Joshua Cribbs, Dexter McCluster and Danny Amendola.

But as you can see, there are 17 guys on the list above who compiled over 1000 return yards last year, meaning that you are getting 100-plus points out of them if you get one every 10 yards.

Just make sure you keep the rule change in mind, as kick return yards are likely going to fall 25 to 50 percent this year as most NFL kickers will be able to boot it out of the back of the end zone.

Long story short, as much as I hate to say it, if you are in a league with points for kick returns, it’s probably a smart idea to go pretty early and get WR Marc Mariani of the Titans, so he can carry your fantasy team. Pity.

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