Optimism is beaming around the Minnesota Vikings’ locker room so far this spring. Players are raving about their new head coach and the culture he has brought in. Kirk Cousins has familiarity with Kevin O’Connell. Defensive coordinator Ed Donatell is bringing in a new scheme. Talented players like Irv Smith, Jr. and Danielle Hunter are returning from injuries. So far, everything feels good, as an NFL team should feel in May.
However, there is already an all-too-familiar development transpiring at punt returner. While Kene Nwangwu has the kick-return job locked in, it seems as though the Vikings are going to enter training camp with a wide-open competition for punt returner.
K.J. Osborn is the only player on the roster who has returned punts in the NFL. Unfortunately, Osborn is almost a lock to be the Vikings’ third receiver for a second consecutive season, and he was abysmal as the team’s punt returner in 2020. Not only did he return just seven punts for 27 yards, but he fumbled the ball and muffed punts too. He eventually was benched with four games to go in the season.
So even though Mike Zimmer and Co. are gone, the Vikings once again have a punt-returning competition between players with little to no experience. The team has looked to replace hometown hero Marcus Sherels since 2018.
The team selected cornerback Mike Hughes in the first round of the 2018 NFL draft. Although the idea of a first-round pick is to have them be an every-down starter, Hughes displayed impressive return ability in college. Injuries cut his rookie season short, and Sherels took over the full-time punt returning job over the final 10 games of the season. He finished with 23 returns for 276 yards, including a season-long of 70 yards.
It turned out that 2018 would be the final season that Sherels was the Vikings’ full-time punt returner. For fans, it was an unceremonious ending for a guy born and raised in Minnesota. A standout at John Marshall High School in Rochester, Sherels walked on at the University of Minnesota, making his way into the starting lineup in 2008.
He then repeated this in the NFL, getting signed as an undrafted free agent following the 2010 preseason by the Vikings. Once again, Sherels climbed the roster and solidified himself as an upper-echelon punt returner, even if the national media often overlooked him.
In eight seasons, he averaged 10.3 yards per return and a team record five touchdowns. He was very reliable, only fumbling eight times over those eight seasons. Unfortunately, it felt as if the team was always trying to replace the Rochester-born Sherels. He was only 5’10”, 175 lbs., so he was too short to be a regular contributor on defense. Therefore, the Vikings opted not to re-sign Sherels at age 32 after the 2018 season.
Since then, it feels as if karma has hit the Vikings hard when it comes to their punt returners. Minnesota couldn’t wait to move past Sherels. Once they finally got their wish, they realized that a competent replacement was much harder to find than they believed.
Minnesota rolled into the regular season with Chad Beebe at punt returner. Beebe returned seven punts for 46 yards before suffering a season-ending injury against the Oakland Raiders in Week 3. The Vikings brought Sherels back, but he shared punt returning duties with Hughes and Bisi Johnson. Together, the four Vikings combined for 28 returns and 191 return yards. Their longest return was only 23 yards.
When Osborn struggled in 2020, the Vikings replaced him with Beebe, who had become a favorite among the coaching staff. The diminutive receiver returned nine punts for 42 yards. In a Week 12 win over the Carolina Panthers, he muffed a punt that nearly doomed Minnesota. Sherels was almost always reliable enough to cleanly field punts, even towards the end of his career.
Minnesota signed veteran receiver Dede Westbrook as a punt returner and WR3 in the 2021 off-season. But Osborn overtook Westbrook for the third receiver spot, and Westbrook was mostly disappointing as a punt returner. He had a few moments, but he only returned 22 punts for 183 yards, an 8.3-yard average.
Maybe the Vikings have just had some bad luck over the past several seasons. Hughes showcased his talent in the return game in college, but injuries caught up to him, and he could never display his potential fully. Westbrook was a very good punt returner before coming to Minnesota. Although he wasn’t a complete disaster in 2021, it’s hard to say that he was a great acquisition. Heck, even Osborn was an outstanding returner in college, averaging a 12.1-yard average in his final three seasons.
Beebe was an average punt returner in college, though. He returned 48 punts for 329 yards, a 6.9-yard average against MAC competition. Between that and his 5’10” frame, Minnesota never should have counted on him being the full-time returner in 2019, especially after injuries had shortened his 2018 season.
It feels like more of the same this year. On Tuesday, Chad Graff of The Athletic reported that Vikings special teams coordinator Matt Daniels had mentioned Ihmir Smith-Marsette, Jalen Nailor, and Thomas Hennigan as potential candidates for the punt-return job.
Smith-Marsette was a dangerous kick returner at Iowa, but he never returned punts. Nailor returned only eight punts for 48 yards at Michigan State. And Hennigan, an undrafted wideout from Appalachian State, returned 62 punts for 467 yards, a 7.5-yard average. He did pop one return for a 57-yard touchdown in 2018, but he was very average the rest of his career in the Sun Belt Conference.
It’s doubtful that the Vikings will go back and experiment with Osborn at punt returner now that he has the third receiver spot locked up. That leaves a lot of inexperience at a position that can positively and negatively change games for teams. The Vikings want to run it back and be competitive in 2022. Unfortunately, it feels like they may also be running back the same routine at punt returner that has plagued them since Marcus Sherels departed.
