Raiders All-Time Top Five: Kick Returners

Not only is Tim Brown a Hall of Fame wide receiver, but he is also probably is the best kick returner in Raiders history. The Raiders selected him with the sixth pick in the first round of the 1988 National Football League Draft out of Notre Dame and he showed during his pro career that he should have gone higher after winning the Heisman Trophy and the Walter Camp Award, was UPI and the Sporting News Player of the Year, in addition to being a consensus All-American as a senior. As a senior, he showed what was to come by catching 34 passes for 846 yards and three touchdowns, returned 34 punts for 401 yards and three scores, rushed for 144 yards and a TD, and gained 456 yards on 23 kickoff returns. Brown finished his career at Notre Dame with 137 receptions for 2,493 yards, a school record of 5,024 all-purpose yards, and 22 touchdowns. He was only getting warmed up. As a rookie with the Raiders, Brown returned 49 punts for 444 yards, a 9.1-yard average, with a long of 36, and took 41 kickoff returns back for Raiders records of 1,098 yards, a 26.8-yard average, and a 97-yard touchdown the first time he touched the ball for the Silver and Black in a 24-13 victory over the San Diego Chargers in the 1988 opener. Since he became a star wide receiver, the Raiders tried to protect him from harm by having him return kicks only in crucial situations, because Brown was selected to nine Pro Bowls, made the All-Pro team in 1996 and 1997, and eventually was chosen to the NFL 1990s All-Decade Team. After sustaining a left knee injury in 1989, Brown said: “I don’t want to say I’m done with kickoff returns for good because I don’t want something to whip me. So I’m going to go back and give it one more shot, but it probably won’t be this year. I still love (returning kickoffs). That’s the most exciting part of the game—to see a guy catch a kickoff and go the length of the field. I don’t think you can ask any more than that.” In his 16-year career with the Raiders, Brown returned 320 punts for 3,272 yards, a 10.2-yard average, and franchise record-tying three touchdowns. He also ran back 49 kickoffs, only eight after his rookie season, for 1,235 yards, a 25.2-yard average, and the one touchdown. On Dec. 9, 2001, Brown returned a punt 88 yards for a touchdown in a 28-26 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, making him the oldest player in NFL history to score a touchdown on a punt return. In 2002, he passed guard Gene Upshaw to become the Raiders' all-time leader in games played with 224, and he also set Raiders records for receptions, receiving yards, and punt return yards. Just think of what Brown, who was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015, might have done had he been a full-time kick returner.

2. George Atkinson, 1968-1977

Atkinson made a name for himself with the Raiders as a kick returner before he became a valued member of the famed Soul Patrol defensive backfield that helped the Raiders win Super Bowl XI, 32-14, over the Minnesota Vikings. Listed at 6-feet, 180 pounds, he probably was not that big, which might be why the Raiders didn’t select Atkinson until the seventh round (No. 190 overall) of the 1968 NFL-AFL Draft out of Morris Brown College, where he was an honorable mention All-American as a kick returner. He was primarily a kick returner as a rookie, setting the Raiders’ record of 205 return yards, including an 86-yard touchdown, in a 48-6 victory over the Buffalo Bills in the season opener. Atkinson set franchise records at the time with 36 punt returns for 490 yards, a 13.6-yard average, and two touchdowns, in addition to running back 32 kickoffs for 820 yards, a 25.1-yard average, with a long of 60 yards. Atkinson became a starter the next seasons, playing cornerback and safety, making the All-AFL team in 1969, was a two-time AFL All-Star and a three-time All-Pro, but he didn’t return kicks as often as he did when he was a rookie but still was productive. In 1973, he made a career-high 41 punt returns for 363 yards, an 8.2-yard average, including a 63-yard touchdown. Atkinson made only 44 more kickoff returns after his rookie year, including 23 for 574 yards, a 25.0-yard average, with a long of 62 yards in 1970. For his Raiders career, he returned 148 punts for 1,247 yards and three touchdowns, setting a franchise record that has since been tied four times, and had 72 kickoff returns for 1,893 yards, a 24.9-yard average, with a long of 62 yards in 1970, but did not score. Atkinson also had 30 interceptions for 448 return yards and two touchdowns, while recovering 13 fumbles and returning two for scores. He is the third-leading punt returner, seventh-leading kickoff returner, and fifth-leading pass interceptor in Raiders team history. Atkinson scored seven touchdowns in his career with the Silver and Black, and undoubtedly would have scored more had he been primarily as a kick returner, but he was too valuable in the defensive backfield.

3. Jacoby Ford, 2010-2013

The 5-9, 185-pound Ford was drafted by the Raiders in the fourth round (No. 108 overall) out of Clemson in the 2010 NFL Draft and played only four seasons in Silver and Black, but they were memorable. Before going to Clemson, he attended Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia, where he reportedly was timed in 4.126 seconds in the 40-yard dash and on the football field recorded seven kick returns for touchdowns, 57 receptions for 1,254 yards and nine touchdowns, and 12 rushing attempts for 306 yards and three touchdowns. Rivals.com ranked him the No. 17 prep school player in the nation and called him the “fastest player on the East Coast.” In four years as a wide receiver at Clemson, Ford caught 143 passes for 1,986 yards, a 13.9-yard average, and 16 touchdowns, rushed 58 times for 484 yards and two scores, returned 49 punts for 49 yards, a 9.8-yard average, including a 92-yard put return for a touchdown against Florida Atlantic, and ran back 47 kickoffs for 1,224 yards, a 23.9-yard average, and another score. As a Raiders rookie in 2010, he returned 53 kickoffs for 1,281 yards, a 24.2-yard average, and a franchise-record three touchdowns, including a 101-yarder on the opening kickoff in a game against the Miami Dolphins. Ford also returned the second-half kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown, had 158 yards in kickoff returns, and caught six passes for 148 yards, including a diving 47-yard catch that set up Sebastian Janikowski for a game-winning 33-yard field goal in a 23-20 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime. “Ford became the first NFL player since 1963 to have 140 receiving yards and 150 return yards in a game,” Jerry McDonald of the Oakland Tribune wrote after Ford amassed 306 all-purpose yards in the game. “The last was Gary Ballman of Pittsburgh in on Nov. 17, 1963, with 161 yards receiving and 159 yards on returns.” In a game against the Indianapolis Colts, Ford returned the opening kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown, making the trip in 11 seconds, and a week later in the season finale, Ford ran 10 yards for a touchdown in a 31-10 victory over the Chiefs. Ford finished his rookie season with 25 receptions for 470 yards, an 18.8-yard average, and two touchdowns, and ran 10 times for 155 yards and two scores. In his second season, he added 19 catches for 279 yards, a 14.7-yard average, and one touchdown, with four rushes for 31 yards, but was used mostly as a returner in his last two seasons with the Raiders. In 2011, Ford returned a kickoff 101 yards for a touchdown in a 24-17 victory over the Cleveland Browns, setting a franchise record with four kickoff returns for TDs. He finished his Raiders career with 75 kickoff returns for 1,874 yards, a 25.0-yard average, and the four touchdowns, while rushing for 201 yards and two TDs, and catching 57 passes for 848 yards, a 14.9-yard average, and three more scores. Ford later signed with the New York Jets and Tennessee Titans, but never played another down in the NFL, finishing his career with the Edmonton Eskimos, Montreal Alouettes, and Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League.

4. Claude “Hoot” Gibson, 1963-65

Gibson was a standout as a defensive back and kick returner in the early days of the American Football League, having been drafted by the San Diego Chargers in the seventh round (No. 55 overall) of the 1961 AFL Draft and by the Chicago Bears in the third round (No. 33 overall) in the National Football League Draft out of North Carolina State. He signed with the Chargers after starting and going both ways for the Wolfpack from his freshman year on, rarely coming out of a game. Gibson led N.C. State in punt returns in 1958 and 1960, kickoff returns in 1959, and interceptions in 1960 with four. He played his senior season with a broken hand and wrist but performed well enough to be selected to play in four post-season all-star games—the Senior Bowl, the Copper Bowl, the Coaches All-America Bowl, and the Chicago College All-Star Game. Gibson got the nickname “Hoot,” after famed rodeo and movie star Edmund “Hoot” Gibson, from his Charger teammates. “During my pro career, I never saw my name in the paper as Claude, Gibson said. “It was ‘Hoot’ everywhere I went, and still is today.” In two seasons with the Chargers, Gibson returned 24 punts for 298 yards, a 12.4-yard average, and five kickoffs for 102 yards, a 20.1-yard average, in addition to intercepting 13 passes that he returned for 128 yards, including a 38-yard touchdown. Then new Coach and General Manager Al Davis, who came to Oakland from the Chargers, brought Gibson along with him in 1963. That season, Gibson returned 26 punts for 307 yards, an 11.8-yard average, and two touchdowns including an 85-yarder, and also made three interceptions. He played in Oakland for only three seasons before abruptly retiring at the age of 27 after the 1965 season, having returned 86 punts for 1,083 yards, a 12.6-yard average, and a franchise-record three touchdowns, which has been tied by George Atkinson, Tim Brown, Johnnie Lee Higgins, and Phillip Buchanon. He led the AFL in punt returns in 1963 and 1964 and has the third-best punt return average in pro football history of players with 75 or more punt returns with 110 returns for 1,381 yards, a 12.1-yard average in his career. In addition, Gibson intercepted 22 passes and returned them for 273 yards and a touchdown, and recovered seven fumbles in his five-year career. Gibson served as a Raiders scout the first two seasons after he retired and then coached the University for Tulsa for three seasons, starting with a 6-4 record in 1970, but winding up at 11-16, before coaching Mars Hill University for 10 years, compiling a 56-46-3 mark, including 8-2-1 in 1980—when the Lions lost in the NAIA Division I quarterfinals.

5. Johnnie Lee Higgins Jr., 2007-2010

Higgins is another player who spent a relatively short time with the Raiders, but definitely left his mark on Raider Nation. The 5-11, 185-pound Higgins played wide receiver and returned kicks for four seasons at the University of Texas-El Paso, catching 190 passes for 3,218 yards, a 16.9-yard average, and 32 touchdowns, returned 52 kickoffs for 1,033 yards, a 19.9-yard average, but no TDs, and ran back 30 punts for 451 yards, 15.0-yard average, and two scores. Higgins was selected Conference USA Special Teams Player of the Year as a senior in 2006. After running the 40-yard dash in 4.43 seconds at the NFL Combine, Higgins was selected by the Raiders in the third round (No. 99 overall) in the 2007 National Football League Draft. Higgins returned 20 punts for 103 yards, a 5.2-yard average, including a 54-yarder, and caught six passes for 47 yards, a 7.8-yard average, as a rookie before really breaking out in his second season. He caught 22 passes for 366 yards, a 16.6-yard average, and four touchdowns including a long of 84 yards while returning 44 punts for a franchise-record 470 yards and three touchdowns—tying the franchise record shared by Claude “Hoot” Gibson, George Atkinson, Tim Brown, Johnnie Lee Higgins, and Phillip Buchanon. He returned punts for touchdowns in back-to-back games that season, when he was named to the All-Pro team by Pro Football Weekly and the Pro Football Writers of America as a kick returner. Unfortunately, Higgins never reached those heights again, and he finished his four-year Raiders career with 57 receptions for 779 yards, a 13.7-yard average, and four touchdowns, in addition to returning 115 punts for 973 yards, an 8.5-yard average, and those three TDs, including a 99-yarder. He also returned 36 kickoffs for 842 yards, a 23.4-yard average, ran for one touchdown, and recovered three fumbles. Higgins was released by the Raiders after the 2010 seasons and signed with the Philadelphia Eagles, who cut him at the end of training camp, and he finished his pro career by playing for the Virginia Destroyers of the United Football League in 2012.