The Ravens defense was already looking pretty good in fantasy leagues, as per usual. But they'll be moving up even more after what I saw out of the return game Thursday night.
Sixth-round wideout LaJohntay Wester was likely selected with the return game in mind. Two years ago, with Florida Atlantic, he led all of college football with a 19.9 average on his 14 punt returns, with 1 TD. He transferred to Colorado for his senior season and again chipped in a punt return score, this time on only 9 returns. That's 2 TDs on 23 punt returns his last two years in college.
Didn't take him long to make an impact at this level, albeit in a practice game. He took his first punt return 17 yards against the Colts on Thursday night, and then went for an 87-yard touchdown on his second chance. Both times he made the first guy miss and picked up extra yards, with the touchdown an electric bit of work in traffic followed by him turning on the jets. Wester is small (5-10, 163), DeSean Jackson-size, with good speed but not eye-popping (4.46 at the combine).
And maybe the Ravens will have something good going on kickoff returns, too. They used Keaton Mitchell (pictured) as their starter in that area in the first preseason game; no lengthy returns from him, but as a running back Mitchell showed plenty of explosiveness, with a pair of carries that went for 20-plus yards. And another running back, Rasheen Ali, had a 69-yard kickoff return in that game. (Granted, we can say that maybe Indianapolis' coverage units are simply not very good, but we've got to make judgments based on what we're seeing.)
We've talked some about kickoff return touchdowns, which should be more prevalent this season. Last season's "dynamic kickoff" rules tweak increased the number of returns, and the further step (placing touchbacks at the 35-yard-line) should bump that number up even further, yielding more touchdowns. Just 7 a year ago, but there will definitely be a lot fewer touchbacks, and more returns, and more touchdowns this year. Baltimore, with Mitchell (perhaps Ali, if he makes the roster) should be above-average in that area.
As for punts, well, no rules changes there, so it will rely on difference-making returners -- like Wester, perhaps -- to get those numbers up. Things have been pretty bleak of late.
The last 10 years, there have been a total of 74 punt return touchdowns league-wide; 7.4 per season. The three top seasons (with 13, 10 and 10 TDs) were the first three of that 10-year span. In the last four years, just 19 TDs on punt returns -- fewer than 5 per season.
The Ravens, with 4 TDs in that decade worth of games, have been one of the better teams in this regard. But even they only have 1 TD on a punt return in the last seven years.
At least they're not one of the five teams that don't have any.
| PUNT RETURN TOUCHDOWNS, 2015-2024 | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | Tot |
| Detroit | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| Chicago | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Jacksonville | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Kansas City | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Baltimore | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| New Orleans | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| LA Chargers | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Miami | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Pittsburgh | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Philadelphia | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Minnesota | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Denver | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| New England | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Buffalo | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Cleveland | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Indianapolis | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Dallas | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| LA Rams | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| NY Jets | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| NY Giants | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Carolina | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Washington | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Las Vegas | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Atlanta | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Houston | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Seattle | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Cincinnati | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Arizona | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| San Francisco | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Green Bay | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tampa Bay | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tennessee | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Annual | 13 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 6 | 74 |
Looking at this, I guess we need to keep expectations in check regarding rookie LaJohntay. If he scores even a single punt return touchdown this season, he'll be beating considerable odds.
Regardless, I'm giving the Ravens a boost in this area. Even if only 6-8 teams wind up scoring on punt this season, chances look really good that Baltimore will be one of them. Add that to their potential on kickoffs, and there might be a couple of scores out of these special teams.
--Andy Richardson