Dustin Hopkins (6’2” / 205) – He had a solid 2019 season, making 83.3% of his field goal attempts and 95.5% of his extra point attempts. 70.6% of his kickoffs resulted in touchbacks, and only 17 kicks were returned for a 25.8 average, with no touchdowns allowed. Hopkins’ negative is that he missed 4 field goals under 50 yards and the kickoff return average was 28^th worst in the league.

Nick Sundberg (6’1” / 254) – The best thing you can say about Sundberg is, “I don’t remember him muffing any snaps”. Zero punts were blocked and only one field goal was blocked. Sundberg was the team’s Walter Peyton Man of the Year candidate for all of his off-field community efforts. He is a solid veteran on and off the field.

Tress Way (6’1” / 220) – He had a Pro Bowl season in 2019. The team was 2^nd overall in the league with 44.1 net punt average. Way averaged 49.6 yards per punt, with 30 of 79 punts inside the 20 with only 4 touchbacks.

Steven Sims Jr (5’10” / 176) – Sims was the primary kickoff returner and replaced Quinn as the punt returner when Quinn was injured. Sims averaged 25.6 yards per return on 32 returns. The highlight was a 91 yard touchdown on a muffed catch against the Lions. He averaged 4.3 yards on 6 punt returns.

Trey Quinn (6’0” / 200) – Quinn returned punts in 6 games last season. He averaged 4.9 yards on 16 returns, with a long of 15 yards.

Antonio Gibson (6’0″ / 228) – Gibson was Memphis’ primary kick returner in 2019, with 23 returns for 645 yards, 28 yards per return, and 1 touchdown and was named the AAC’s Special Teams Player of the Year in 2019.

Isaiah Wright (6’2” / 220) – He was the primary returner at Temple for 4 years. In his career at Temple, he averaged 24.2 yards per kickoff return and 10.3 yards per punt return. He scored 2 touchdowns on kickoffs and 3 on punt returns.

Predictions

Hopkins, Way and Sundberg are locks unless something unfortunate happens. The interesting part for the special teams coaches will be to identify the various contributors on the special teams and which player or players will perform the return duties.

The best-case scenario is that Isaiah Wright performs well at this level and earns the job as the primary kick and punt return specialist. That is his best shot at making the team. This would free Steve Sims up to focus on the slot wide receiver role. Another option on kickoffs could be Gibson, who did that duty in 2019 at Memphis. I don’t see Trey Quinn as much of a contributor under the new coaching staff.

One of the biggest drawback of no preseason games will be the inability of teams to evaluate players and their special teams abilities.