The Falcons need a new returner after announcing Avery Williams tore his ACL on Friday during OTAs. Williams, who led the NFL in punt-return average in 2022, will undergo surgery Thursday and miss the 2023 season – one in which the Falcons are aiming to return to relevance after a busy offseason.
“It’s unfortunate,” coach Arthur Smith said. The team will turn its attention to replacing Williams. Smith mentioned four candidates Wednesday: cornerbacks Mike Hughes and Dee Alford and receivers Penny Hart and Josh Ali.
“Someone will step up,” Smith said. Each of those four has returner experience, though replacing Williams will be difficult. There are plenty of options, including players who aren’t yet with the team.
Hughes, whom the Falcons re-signed in March, has returned 21 punts and five kicks in his career. Most recently, he returned five kicks for 68 yards for the Chiefs in 2021. A former first-round draft pick, Hughes excelled as a returner for Central Florida in 2017. He averaged 31.7 yards per kick return (20 returns) with two touchdowns while adding a 16.6 punt-return average with a touchdown. He was the first name Smith mentioned Wednesday.
Alford has shown ball-carrier ability in the past, including racking up 195 career interception yards at Tusculum. He was a ballhawk in the CFL, too, before joining the Falcons.
Hart, a Roswell native and Georgia State product, is trying to make the Falcons roster, and a returner role could be his path. He has returned only 17 kickoffs and 15 punt returns since 2017, the first of his final two seasons at Georgia State. But he performed well in a small sample in 2018, returning nine punts for 158 yards and a touchdown. He hasn’t returned kicks in the NFL.
Ali returned punts at Kentucky from 2019-21, returning nine kicks for 133 yards and a touchdown in 2021. He’s another player who’ll need to impress to have a chance to make the team. New receiver Scotty Miller has straight-line speed but lacks returner experience. He was a kick returner at Bowling Green in 2015-16 and returned only one kick during his time with the Buccaneers.
During Wednesday’s practice, rookie running back Bijan Robinson, the team’s first-round pick, worked with the return team. As exciting as he could be in the role, he has enough on his plate already. Robinson will be the team’s lead back and also contribute as a receiver (his collegiate coach, Steve Sarkisian, said Robinson had the best hands on the team. The Falcons already have gotten looks at him as a receiver, and he impressed with a touchdown catch Wednesday).
Perhaps Cordarrelle Patterson, with a lessened role on offense, could be another option to regularly return kicks. He has nine career kick-return touchdowns, including one last season. He’s returned only 27 kicks since joining the Falcons, but he was dynamic as a returner earlier in his career. With the team’s stable of backs, maybe it feels comfortable moving Patterson into the primary kick-return job (he has little experience as a punt returner).
The Falcons also will scan free agency and the waiver wire for a returner. There will be a lot of players cut loose in August, and one of them might end up as their answer.
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