Happy Returns: Cowboys Should Sign USFL’s KaVontae Turpin

FRISCO - We are on-record in this space as believing the importance of the return game in the NFL is grossly overrated, that it’s now a mish-mash of innocuous yardage gains, harmful penalties and grotesque injuries.

How vehemently do the Dallas Cowboys disagree with us? They continue to allow a team MVP candidate in CeeDee Lamb to return punts.

We view that as a careless waste of an asset. But fine, Cowboys. If you insist that punt and kick returns still matter, prove your devotion …

By committing a roster spot to it.

As CowboysSI.com was first to report, a former standout wide receiver for TCU who just became the USFL MVP, KaVontae Turpin, was here inside The Star late last week for a tryout session.

(Also participating: Maurice Alexander (5-11, 180), who like Turpin also has return skill.)

Based on what they swear by, the Cowboys should sign Turpin the football player, though at 5-9 and 155 pounds, he is anything but the prototype ... especially in a Lamb-led Dallas wideouts room full of big bodies.

But he is very literally the best unemployed return man on the planet.

Turpin, 25, finished the 10-game USFL season leading the league in receiving yards (540) and yards after catch (316) ... and he did that while catching just 53 passes. Turpin also added 129 rushing yards and six all-purpose touchdowns for the New Jersey Generals, who sported a league-best 9-1 record.

Turpin’s time at TCU was cut short three years back due to a domestic violence issue, and the USFL offered him his first chance back on the field since 2019. Assuming Dallas is satisfied with his behavioral improvement …

Why subject Lamb - a Pro Bowl receiver bidding to be a top-10 performer there - to the wear and tear and risk of special teams?

As a rookie, Lamb returned 24 punts for 172 yards. That’s 7.2 yards per return.

Is that “effective”? Not exactly. Among everybody who returned an NFL punt in 2020, Lamb’s 7.1 yards ranked him 40th. Among guys who returned at least four punts, Lamb ranked 32nd.

In 2021, Lamb jumped up to 9.9 yards per return; that placed him around No. 20 in the NFL.

Again: Why subject Lamb to the wear and tear and risk of special teams? So he can average numbers that are highly mediocre in the NFL?

Wanna bet Turpin can average seven or nine yards or more per punt return … while Lamb is utilized in almost infinitely more important ways?

Is Dallas trying to upgrade its return game? OK. Is Dallas trying to do that by removing CeeDee Lamb from harm’s way? Better than OK, if KaVontae Turpin is soon added to the 90-man roster.

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