Grading special teams positions for the Atlanta Falcons in 2022
Kick returner:
- Avery Williams
- Cordarrelle Patterson
It was a historic year for one of the Atlanta Falcons kick returners; Cordarrelle Patterson was able to return his ninth kickoff for a touchdown, breaking his tie with Josh Cribbs and Leon Washington.
We all know how great Patterson is at returning touchdowns but Avery Williams actually had more return attempts. Keith Smith even had three attempts all thanks to Cordarrelle and how afraid teams were kicking to him.
Here we will look at each of their stats compared to the rest of the NFL, Avery William’s will be listed first (minimum five attempts – 55 qualified).
- Returns: Avery – 16 (T26th) | CP – 9 (43rd)
- Return yds: 313 (30th) | 284 (34th)
- TD: 0 | 1 (T2nd w/ 3 players)
- Long: 30 (T51st) | 103 (T2nd)
- Average: 19.6 (52nd) | 31.6 (1st)
Cordarrelle Patterson is a special return man. Nobody averaged more yards per kick return, amongst players with five or more attempts. Avery Williams wasn’t quite as spectacular but he was also hurt by the unique ways teams would kickoff to avoid the ball landing in Patterson’s hands.
It was a good unit that was fortunately able to see a touchdown that ended up changing the complexion of a game that Atlanta went on to win.