Since losing Antonio Gibson to a torn ACL in Week 5, the New England Patriots have shuffled several kickoff returners. It looks like they may have found a permanent guy in rookie Kyle Williams.
A third-round draft pick earlier this year, Williams took his first snap at the position last Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals. The results were promising, and included a 36-yard runback that was the Patriots’ longest runback since Gibson scored a 90-yard touchdown in Week 2 against the Miami Dolphins.
For special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer, the results themselves were not the only important takeaway from Williams’ performance.
“I like the way he played,” Springer said Friday. “He’s a speedy guy, right? And then on top of that, in this new dynamic kickoff, you really can’t have any fear out there. You’ve got to go through the smoke and run. And I felt like he did that, especially on that last kickoff return where he almost broke it for a touchdown.”
In his first game action as the Patriots’ kick returner, Williams took three snaps and ran them back a total of 86 yards with a 28.7-yard average.
Springer said, “His mentality throughout the game was really good, he was confident in catching it – catching it, just moving forward, getting vertical, finding the vertical seam and hitting it. That’s what he did.” “Hopefully, he’ll continue to do that with whoever we line up this week. We’ve been training all the guys all year, right? Developmental guys, different guys. He was the next guy to step up last week and he did that, and we’ll see what happens this week.”
Williams’ next test will come against a New York Giants special teams unit that ranks sixth in the league in average yards per return (24). Whether the 69th overall pick in this year’s draft will be up for a challenge remains to be seen, but the Patriots seem intent on finding out.
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