The Vikings’ Forgotten Position for Generating Explosive, Game-Changing Plays
Recent seasons have involved some underwhelming punt returning. The Vikings’ forgotten position needs some attention yet again.
Indeed, the original plan at the dawn of the Kwesi Adofo-Mensah era was to hand things off to Jalen Reagor, a tremendously gifted athlete who has mostly flopped at the NFL level. Minnesota moved on from him after a single season, giving Brandon Powell the punt returner job. Powell has been better, but he hasn’t translated his shiftiness into explosive gains. Can the Vikings do better?
The Vikings’ Forgotten Position for Explosive Gains: Punt Returner
Reagor came at a cost: acquiring the former 1st-Round receiver meant forfeiting a 5th and a 7th, which isn’t anywhere close to worth it when we use hindsight to evaluate the trade.
Just as a punt returner, Reagor performed poorly. The former Eagle had 26 punt returns go for just 167 yards. Crunch the numbers and that’s an average of 6.4 yards per return. Within the context of that season, Reagor didn’t fare particularly well: his yards-per-return number was below the league average, which was sitting at 8.9 yards.
Going into 2023, Reagor got kicked out of Minnesota. Brandon Powell took over his spot, functioning as both a depth receiver and as the punt returner.
Powell, to his credit, was an improvement. The receiving numbers were pretty respectable. In 2023, Powell had 29 catches go for 324 yards and 1 touchdown, picking up 18 1st downs in the process; in 2022, Reagor had 8 catches for 104 yards and 1 touchdown, picking up 5 1st downs in the process.
And then as a punt returner Powell was better, as well. He turned 37 returns into 289 yards, good for a 7.8 yards-per-return average. Not tremendous, but a step in the right direction.
The issue is that Mr. Powell took a step back in 2024, both as a receiver and punt returner.
On offense, Powell was down to 7 catches for 71 yards. There were no touchdowns but he did snag 5 1st downs. On special teams, Powell had 23 punt returns go for 164 yards, working out to an average of 7.1 yards per return. The league average was up at 9.9 yards per return, so Powell was a decent step behind where Minnesota would want him to be. In fact, he was down in a tie for 29th among qualifying returners.
His roster spot in Minnesota looks uncertain, especially since he’s moving toward free agency. At best, there will be a modest contract for him to stick around and compete for a spot in the late summer.
Some of the league’s most explosive punt returners from last season are moving toward free agency. Mecole Hardman (10.2 yards-per-return average) and Olamide Zaccheaus (10.5 yards-per-return average) are a couple names to keep tucked in the back of your mind.
Free agency gets going on Monday, March 10th.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter, as a co-host for Notes from the North, and as the proprietor at The Vikings Gazette, a humble Vikings Substack.
