Cordarrelle Patterson just become the first player to be named a first-team All-Pro returner by the Associated Press for the fourth time in his career. Patterson is on the Mount Rushmore of all time great returners, as he has dominated this era of kickoff returners in outlandish fashion. And he continues to rack up the postseason honors to go with his tremendous return averages, even if it come with a bit of an asterisk.

The Associated Press began naming an All-Pro kickoff returner in 1976; despite the name, it’s far from clear whether the voters drew a distinction between punt and kickoff returns. ^[1]In 2011, Patrick Peterson received the most votes of any kickoff returner, and he was therefore the first-team All-Pro selection. Only problem: Peterson, who had a magnificent year as a punt … Continue reading That was due in large part to some great returners beginning to enter the league. The previous year, Cardinal Terry Metcalf set an NFL with 2,462 all-purpose yards, and he ranked 3rd in punt return average and 2nd in kickoff return average. In Houston, Billy Johnson, of white shoes fame, had three punt returns for a touchdown in 1975. Pro Football Weekly named Johnson as its All-Pro returner that year, and beginning in ’76, the AP followed suit with a special slot dedicated to kickoff returners.

In the inaugural year, Denver’s Rick Upchurch earned first-team All-Pro honors from the Associated Press; that would happen two more times in his career. In the ’90s, Mel Gray also earned 3 first-team All-Pro returner nods from the Associated Press, and Devin Hester (’06, ’07, ’10) would later become the third player to earn three such honors.

In 2013, a rookie Cordarrelle Patterson earned 36 of 50 votes for the All-Pro kickoff returner spot, with a number of the other 14 votes actually going to punt returners. In 2015, Tyler Lockett (23 votes) was the AP’s first-team All-Pro returner, and he was great on both punt and kickoff returns that season. Patterson (who doesn’t return punts) averaged 6 more yards per kickoff return than Lockett, and received 15 votes; Darren Sproles (who didn’t return kickoffs) was the game’s top punt returner, and received 8 votes. Lockett was a worthy choice as the top returner overall, but Patterson was the top kickoff returner and Sproles the top punt returner.

Beginning in 2016, the Associated Press finally decided to fix this problem, and created two slots on the roster, naming a first-team punt returner and a first-team kickoff returner. But, of course, that arguably dilutes the value of being an All-Pro returner, since it’s easier now to make the AP’s All-Pro roster. In 2016, Patterson received 41 of 50 votes for the kickoff returner slot, while Tyreek Hill was a unanimous choice for the All-Pro punt returner position. The odds are that Hill would have been the first-team pick in ’16 had the AP not added the extra returner slot. In 2019, Patterson was again the clear choice as the game’s top kickoff returner, giving him 3 such AP first-team honors on his resume. And then yesterday, it was announced that Patterson again (and justifiably) ran away with the first-team All-Pro kickoff return honors.

Patterson is the most dominant kickoff returner of our era, and it is not particularly close. The graph below shows the 97 players with at least 25 kickoff returns since Patterson entered the NFL in 2013. Patterson has averaged 1.6 more yards per return than any other player, and he has nearly 2,000 more return yards than anyone else. He has 8 kickoff return touchdowns over the last 8 seasons; no other player has more than two. See if you can spot Patterson in the graph below.

The table below shows the Associated Press All-Pro returners for each season since 1976.

As always, please leave your thoughts in the comments. For the pre-1976 era, who would have likely been the choices?

1975: As written above,  Terry Metcalf and Billy Johnson both had monster years; Pro Football Weekly chose Metcalf, while the Football News chose Johnson.

1974: Probably Dick Jauron, who averaged 17 yards per punt return and was the Football News choice and a Pro Bowler; Metcalf was the second-team choice from FN.

1973: No organization named a returner before 1974, but Herb Mul-Key (Washington) and Greg Pruitt (Cleveland) were the Pro Bowl returners.

1972: Ron Smith led the NFL in kickoff return average and was named to the Pro Bowl; Mercury Morris and Bruce Laird both also made it as returners.

1971: Speedy Duncan led the NFL in punt return average and was fifth in kickoff return average; he and Morris made the Pro Bowl.

1970: Cecil Turner had 4 kickoff return touchdowns, while Lemar Parrish, who scored on both punt and kickoff returners, was the other Pro Bowl choice.