COVID Costs Titans Their Punt Returner
NASHVILLE – The punt return has been a one-man job for the Tennessee Titans in 2020.
Not anymore.
The Titans will have to find someone else to fill that role for at least one game after Kalif Raymond was placed on the COVID-19 reserve list Saturday. That means Raymond will not be available for Sunday’s contest against the Detroit Lions and possibly longer.
Wide receiver Cody Hollister also was placed on the COVID-19 reserve list and punter Trevor Daniel was removed. Hollister and Daniel are both practice squad players.
Raymond has been Tennessee’s punt returner and a rotational wide receiver through this season’s first 13 games. He is tied for second in the NFL with 23 returns and has opted for just 10 fair catches.
The last time the Titans had a player with at least 20 punt returns in a season was 2017, when Adoreé Jackson had 34 as a rookie.
Raymond is sixth in the league with an average of 9.0 yards per return, and his longest was 40 yards, in the Oct. 13 victory over Buffalo. He also has nine receptions for 187 yards (a 20.8 yards-per-reception average) for the offense.
Raymond also was Tennessee’s primary kickoff returner for the first half of this season but recently has relinquished that job to Cameron Batson, who is the most likely candidate to handle punts in Raymond’s absence. In 20 career games, Batson has three punt returns – all in 2018 – for four yards.
The Titans’ only other proven punt returners are Jackson, who has not played this season because of a knee injury and is considered questionable for this contest, and wide receiver Adam Humphries, who is on injured reserve because of a concussion.
Another possibility is rookie running back Darrynton Evans. However, the third-round draft pick out of Appalachian State has played just two games, the last was two months ago, and was not involved in the return game before he was sidelined by a hamstring injury.
