Buffalo Bills All-Drought team: punt returner

Our All-Drought roster is nearly complete! Today we need to select a punt returner for the group. Like with kick returners, the Bills have fielded a few effective punt returners over the past 17 seasons, and these are the candidates for selection.

Nate Clements

While Clements was earning his starting spot as a rookie cornerback, he was also his team’s starting kick returner, and he even handled a few punts in 2001. He returned one of those punts 66 yards for a touchdown. Clements made a few more appearances as a punt returner for Buffalo, and was the primary returner in 2004. He brought back one more touchdown that season, and finished his Bills career with 9.5 yards per punt return.

Roscoe Parrish

Parrish may not have developed into the receiving weapon Bills fans could’ve hoped for, but the second round pick out of Miami was one of the league’s more dynamic specialists for several years. He returned a Bills-record three punts for touchdowns during his career, and led the league in punt return average in 2007 and 2008. In fact, Parrish was so good as a punt returner that his career return average (11.6) is higher than his career receiving average (11.2). Then again, maybe that says more about his abilities as a receiver.

Leodis McKelvin

Although kick returning didn’t work out for McKelvin, he continued to work as Buffalo’s punt returner during his time with the Bills, and showed continued aptitude for making plays with the ball in his hands. McKelvin is tied with Parrish for the franchise record with three punt return touchdowns, and had two in the 2012 season. He led the NFL in yards per punt return that year. Fumbles were, of course, an issue, with a total of 17 out of his 194 career touches. He did finish his career with 10.3 yards per return, which ranked sixth among Bills with at least 40 punt returns.

Voting time: Pick the best punt returner for our Bills team! With that, we’ve filled out our football roster. We still have a head coach, offensive coordinator, and defensive coordinator to choose before we wrap this up.