Kickoff Return Players to Target in Fantasy Football

This article is for the real sickos out there. Those that earn points for kick return yards in their fantasy leagues. But everything here is a bit dependent on the scale of those points. We don’t have generally agreed-upon standards like we do for receptions.

As an example, I was in a league two years ago where you earned one fantasy point for every five return yards. So, a 30-yard kick return was the equivalent of a touchdown. Kick returners were viable in that league without a role on offense at all. That typically isn’t the case. But all of this is to say if you have questions about your specific scoring settings, feel free to reach out to me on Bluesky. With that context in mind, let’s first dig into what happened last year before looking at who to target in return leagues in 2026.

What’s Happened with Kickoff Returns Recently

Prior to the 2024 season, the NFL introduced new kickoff return rules with the hope of drastically increasing the number of returns. But that’s not exactly what happened. The NFL projected a 55.0% return rate but did make it clear that it was very difficult to estimate. In reality, the return rate did increase from a record-low 21.8% in 2023 but only to 32.8%.

And the distribution of returns did not change drastically either. It mostly just shifted to the right by about three yards. What happened in practice was the average starting field position increased by about 4.3 yards. And that was mostly driven by touchbacks with two-thirds of all kickoffs starting at the 30 yardline in 2024 compared to the 25 yardline in 2023. Clearly, teams didn’t view the additional five-yard cost of a touchback as taxing as the NFL expected.

So, in 2025, the NFL increased the cost of a touchback further, with the ball now starting at the 35 yardline. By widening the gap between a touchback (35 yardline) compared to the average return in 2024 (about 28 yards), the hope was we’d start to see return rates like the NFL estimated prior to 2024. And it worked.

While the distribution of kickoff returns didn’t change dramatically, the pure volume of them did. The average game had 3.5 kickoff returns in 2024. That nearly doubled to 7.6 kickoff returns in 2025. So, opportunities for kickoff return yardage in our sicko leagues doubled year-over-year.

As I mentioned at the top, the relevance of these players is really going to depend on your specific league settings. For most leagues, the return yardage on its own won’t be enough to push a guy into your starting lineup. They’re also going to need some offensive upside. So, the players I’ve highlighted below have both return potential and some shot at a true offensive role.

Players to Target

Rashid Shaheed

Rashid Shaheed was the cover image for this article last year and he remains one of the strongest bets to earn traditional receiving fantasy points plus a locked-in kick returner role. He always flashed efficiency through 1.9+ yards per route run (YPRR) seasons…until last year. But even with the disappointing end of his year in Seattle, he nearly beat his career-best ESPN Analytics open score.

Let’s dig a bit into his pre- and post-trade splits. Prior to being sent to Seattle, Shaheed hit 5+ targets in all 10 of his games. But following the trade, that rate dropped to just 33% including the playoffs. He had as many 5+ target games as those with just one target. But he still made an impact in the return game, especially when he took the opening kickoff back for a 95-yard TD in the Divisional Round of the playoffs.

The data is not going to like Shaheed’s profile if you focus on his games with Seattle. If you’re drafting him for an offensive role, you’re going to have to tell yourself a story. That story might focus on the difficulty for any player to join a team mid-season that was winning games and making an immediate impact on offense. That the Seahawks could have spent the money they paid Shaheed this offseason on Kenneth Walker but chose to pay Shaheed instead. That offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak is gone, and the insane concentration of Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s role could be gone with it.

I think Shaheed is an incredibly talented player. And I have some optimism that he’ll be a larger part of the Seahawks’ offense following a full offseason with the team. I also like the Seahawks as a team stack in best ball. They are projected for the 9th-most points in the league but their top four players are 25th in draft cost. In return yardage leagues, you have the chance for an absolute smash pick if his offensive role picks up.

Bhayshul Tuten

I wrote an entire article on Bhayshul Tuten and it wasn’t all positive. Similar to Shaheed’s role on the Seahawks, we have a lot of projection on Tuten’s role in 2026. Tuten didn’t have enough rushing attempts to qualify for my Most Predictable RB Stat article, which in and of itself is bad. But if he did, he would’ve been 43rd out of 46 RBs in breakaway run rate.

You can find optimism in Tuten’s college profile, though. He was 82nd-percentile in rushing TDs per attempt and 97th-percentile in avoided tackles per attempt. And he’s flashed these strengths on a small NFL sample. If he qualified, he would’ve been 9th in avoided tackles per attempt and 2nd in touchdowns per attempt, not even including his two receiving TDs.

I also don’t view Chris Rodriguez as anyone that could block Tuten’s ascension if he’s a good player. My hope is that Tuten’s offensive role is so large that he won’t be a large part of the return game. But there is so chance he gets both and if that’s the case, Tuten could go nuclear in return leagues.

Later Round WRs

The Falcons were dead-last in average kick return yards last year and 29th in punt return yards. So, the selection of Zachariah Branch in the draft should fix that issue quickly. Branch had both a punt return TD and kick return TD during his college career. He’s extremely explosive and dynamic in small spaces. The issue on the offensive side of the ball is that he was mostly a gadget player in college. Over 45% of his career targets in college came behind the line of scrimmage. And that type of profile is littered with misses like Lynn Bowden, Malachi Corley, and Kadarius Toney. The upside is he has a real shot at the WR2 job in Atlanta, given his competition is Jahan Dotson.

Malik Washington is a similar bet to Branch but Washington could legitimately be his team’s WR1. There’s not a lot to love from Washington’s 2025 season specifically on offense. He only earned a target on 15.7% of his routes and earned only 1.0 YPRR. He’s also on an offense projected for the fewest pass attempts in the league and the 4th-fewest implied points per game this season. But his competition is so bad there is at least a chance we see Washington earn more targets along with his kick return role.

Handcuff RBs

I’m lumping a lot of these guys together, but I think handcuff RBs or RBs in ambiguous situations are especially good bets in kick return leagues. I mentioned Bucky Irving in this article two years ago, but he ultimately didn’t get the kick returner role. But the reason he didn’t get it was because he became such a vital piece of the offense. So, even if you’re wrong on the kick returner role, you can still be right because these RBs can massively out earn their expected fantasy points. But if these RBs don’t ascend, you get an increased floor with the kick return yards.

You don’t have to force my hand to draft Keaton Mitchell, one of the most explosive RBs in the league. No, he’s not reasonably going to take a lot of work away from Omarion Hampton. But Mike McDaniel came out recently and said he’ll be an asset in the receiving game. You should get explosives with McDaniel’s scheme, an elite offensive line, and Mitchell’s talent. And you have some contingent upside of a larger offensive role if Hampton were to ever get hurt.

On a small sample of 115 routes, Dylan Sampson led all RBs in YPRR last season at 2.4. He was 6th in ESPN Analytics’ overall receiver score behind some elite receiving backs like Christian McCaffrey and Bijan Robinson. Quinshon Judkins wasn’t awful but landed in the middle of the league in most receiving efficiency metrics. I think Sampson is good enough to keep a standalone receiving role on the Browns. The question is how valuable is that on the team projected to score the fewest points in the league this season?

It’s the complete opposite story for Ray Davis. I don’t think he’ll have much of a standalone role behind James Cook. Especially since the receiving work will be given to Ty Johnson. But the Bills are projected for the 2nd-most points in the league in 2026. The bet on Davis on the offensive side of the ball is purely as a handcuff to Cook. If Cook were to miss time and Davis kept the kick return role, he would be a massive hit in those weeks.