Item in the Newsblast today that the Cowboys may use rookie CeeDee Lamb on punt returns this year. He's experienced, having handled punts all three years at Oklahoma, averaging 8.8 yards per return. Last year only seven NFL teams had higher averages, so 8.8 is pretty good.
Lamb didn't have any touchdowns on his 54 college returns, though, so no one should necessarily be counting on a bunch of scores from him in that capacity. And the NFL, either due to punting approach, coverage teams, or rules modifications (or all three) has gotten better and better at limiting punt return touchdowns anyway.
Punt return touchdowns used to be more common. From 2000-2009, teams totaled 143 scores on punt returns -- an average of more than 14 per season. And that average held for most of the past decade: at least 13 punt return touchdowns each season from 2010-2015.
But that's gone now. The last four years, teams have scored 10, 10, 7 and 7 touchdowns on returns. That's an average of 8.5 per season -- a little more than half of what the league was scoring over the previous 16 years.
Table shows the last 10 years of punt return touchdowns, team by team. Chicago (not surprisingly, with the work done by Devin Hester over the first part of the decade) leads the way with 9 punt return scores over that span, while Kansas City (also not surprising, with Tyreek Hill accounting for 4 of them) comes in 2nd with 8 TDs.
| TEAM PUNT RETURN TOUCHDOWNS, 2010-2019 | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | Tot |
| Chicago | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Kansas City | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 |
| Baltimore | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Detroit | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Philadelphia | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Dallas | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Pittsburgh | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Denver | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Tennessee | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Arizona | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Minnesota | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| LA Rams | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Green Bay | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| New England | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Buffalo | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Cleveland | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Miami | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| LA Chargers | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Jacksonville | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Indianapolis | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Houston | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| New Orleans | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Atlanta | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| NY Jets | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| San Francisco | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Carolina | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Cincinnati | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| NY Giants | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Oakland | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Seattle | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Washington | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Tampa Bay | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 13 | 20 | 18 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 7 | |
Dallas ties for 3rd with 6 touchdowns over that span, but note that half of those came way back in 2010. In the last six years they have 1 score on a punt return (better than Tampa Bay, at least, which has none). So it won't take much for Lamb to be an upgrade in that area. But expectations for big numbers should be kept in check. There just aren't many such scores in the NFL these days.
--Andy Richardson