Top 5 best kick returners in NFL history

During the 2020 NFL season, seven different players reached the end zone on a kick return — a rare feat accomplished only by those daring enough to run full speed ahead into an entire special teams unit.

Scoring on a kick return is an uncommon achievement in today's game, but a handful of players made it an art.

Let's count down the best kick returners in NFL history.

5. Gale Sayers

NFL teams: Chicago Bears
Years active: 1965-1971
Accolades: 5x first-team All-Pro, 4x Pro Bowler, NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year (1965), NFL Comeback Player of the Year (1969)

Former Bears running back and return specialist Gale Sayers had his career cut short by injuries, but during his seven-year stint with the NFL, he made a lasting impression.

Sayers retired in 1971, with a kick-return average of 30.6 yards, which is still a record.

In a 1967 matchup with the San Francisco 49ers, he returned the opening kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown, then ran a punt all the way to the end zone. That performance made him one of a handful of players in NFL history to score two return touchdowns in a game. 

Sayers' six kick-return touchdowns tie him with four players for the second-most all time. However, with just 91 return attempts, his percentage of touchdowns per kick return is the best in NFL history.

Considered by his peers as one of the most difficult players to tackle, Sayers' teammate Dick Butkus once said, "He had this ability to go full speed, cut, and then go full speed again. ... You could never get a clean shot on Gale. Never."

Inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977, at age 34, Sayers is the youngest person to be enshrined in Canton. 

4. Josh Cribbs

NFL teams: Cleveland Browns, New York Jets, Indianapolis Colts
Years active: 2005-2014
Accolades: 3x Pro Bowler, first-team All-Pro (2009), NFL's all-time kickoff return touchdown leader (tied)

Undrafted out of college, after he played quarterback for Kent State, Josh Cribbs landed on Cleveland's roster and made an immediate impact in the return game.

As a rookie, Cribbs averaged 24.5 yards per return and set a franchise record with 1,094 return yards that season. The following year, he topped his own record, and did so again in 2007, with 1,809 kickoff return yards.

Only MarTay Jenkins, with 2,186 yards, tallied more kickoff return yards in a single NFL season.

In 2009, Cribbs set and extended the NFL record for kickoff return touchdowns, after he put up two scores against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Cribbs endured injuries later in his career and retired in 2014 with the third-most kick return yards (11,113). His three kick-return touchdowns in one season (2009) is also tied for second most in history.

What makes Cribbs' production most impressive is the fact that he scored all eight of his kick-return touchdowns, and two of his three punt return touchdowns, during a five-year stretch.

3. Cordarrelle Patterson

NFL teams: Minnesota Vikings, Oakland Raiders, New England Patriots, Chicago Bears, Atlanta Falcons
Years active: 2013-present
Accolades: Super Bowl champion (LIII), 4x first-team All-Pro, 4x Pro Bowler, NFL record 109-yard play (tied), all-time kickoff return touchdown leader (tied)

Cordarrelle Patterson has made a name for himself as a lethal return specialist, in an era when kickoffs result in touchbacks far more often than touchdowns because of recent NFL rule changes.

In spite of that, Patterson has already tied Cribbs and Leon Washington's all-time record for kick-return touchdowns, and the 30-year-old still has more football to play.

As a rookie, in his second game, Patterson scored his first NFL touchdown with a 105-yard return on the opening kick.

That season, he also tied the record for longest play in NFL history, when he ran a kickoff 109 yards into the end zone, which also set the record for longest kick return. 

Nicknamed "Flash," Patterson has averaged one kickoff return touchdown per season and currently ranks second in average yards per kick return (29.8), behind Sayers.

Patterson has also been called upon to play running back and receiver. He is the first player to record a 100-yard kickoff return touchdown, a 75-yard touchdown catch, and a 50-yard rushing touchdown in the same season (2013).

2. Brian Mitchell

NFL teams: Washington Football Team, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants
Years active: 1990-2003
Accolades: Super Bowl champion (XXVI), Pro Bowler (1995), first-team All-Pro (1995), all-time NFL leader in career kickoff return yards and punt return yards

Brian Mitchell may not have been flashy, but his grit and determination helped him set numerous records as a return specialist.

The former college quarterback made a statement from the get-go his rookie season, when he returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown in a Washington preseason game.

Mitchell padded his stat sheet with yards in the return game, simply by finding a hole and plowing straight ahead toward the end zone. 

He retired in 2003, with the NFL record for most most kick returns (607), most kick return yards (14,014), most punt returns (463), and most punt return yards (4,999).

Mitchell also ranks second in combined kick and punt returns for touchdowns (13) and has the second-most all-purpose yards (23,330) in NFL history, behind Jerry Rice.

His 875 postseason kickoff return yards are another record, and he racked up the most combined yards (3,076) by any one player against a single opponent (the Dallas Cowboys).

1. Devin Hester

NFL teams: Chicago Bears, Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, Seattle Seahawks
Years active: 2006-2016
Accolades: 4x Pro Bowler, 3x first-team All-Pro, all-time punt return touchdown leader, all-time total return touchdown leader

No player was more dangerous in the return game than Devin Hester.

Opposing teams would do everything in their power to avoid kicking the ball in his direction, and the 5-foot-11, 190-pound speedster still retired with a number of NFL records as a return specialist.

Selected in the second round by the Bears, Hester was originally drafted to play cornerback but filled in as a returner his rookie season.

Through his first 13 games, he posted three punt-return touchdowns, including one in his debut, along with a pair of kick-return touchdowns, and a then record-tying 108-yard touchdown off a missed field goal against the New York Giants.

That season, after a 13-3 regular season, Chicago reached Super Bowl XLI, where Hester became the first player to return the opening Super Bowl kickoff for a touchdown. The play also marked the quickest touchdown scored in Super Bowl history and the fastest lead taken by a team (later surpassed by the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII).

The Bears' opponent, Indianapolis, did not kick the ball directly to Hester for the remainder of the game.

Hester retired in 2016 and holds a slew of arguably untouchable NFL records, including most special teams return touchdowns (20), most punt-return touchdowns (14), most single-season combined return touchdowns (six), and most single-season punt-return touchdowns (four).

He was named to the Pro Bowl four times and was NFC Special Teams Player of the Week 14 times.