AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys - Source: Unsplash
Where Does Former UFL Star KaVontae Turpin Rank Among the NFL's Best Returners?
Nobody drafted him. Let's be honest about KaVontae Turpin's path after TCU in 2019: indoor football with the Frisco Fighters, Fan Controlled Football, then a summer with the Panthers Wrocław in the European League of Football. Then came the 2022 USFL, the league that merged with the XFL in 2023 to form today's UFL.
With the Generals, Turpin was named MVP, led the league with 540 receiving yards, posted a league-best 15.3 yards per punt return, and scored the team’s only punt return touchdown. Dallas signed him that summer, and what has followed since has been remarkable.
Turpin's Rise
A First-team All-Pro in 2024, Second-team in 2025, three Pro Bowls, and back-to-back kickoff return yardage titles. There was a 60-yard punt return touchdown against Cleveland and a 99-yard kickoff return against Washington — bobbled, scooped, spun, and gone. Last season's 1,814 kick return yards were the second-most in NFL history, and through Week 2 of 2026, he's leading the league again with 244 kick return yards at 27.1 per return.
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But despite the former General's returning exploits, online betting sites still don't consider his Dallas Cowboys genuine contenders in the NFL in 2026. The latest NFL futures at Bovada currently list the Texas outfit as a +2500 outsider to win the Super Bowl next February, by no means out of contention, but certainly not one of the frontrunners.
Should they upset the odds, then Turpin will likely have to continue to pump out stellar return numbers. But where does he rank amongst the NFL's elite returners? Let's take a look.
1. KaVontae Turpin, Dallas Cowboys
Consider what it took for a 5-foot-9 player, the lightest man on any NFL roster, to become the standard at his position. Turpin's value lives in hidden yardage rather than touchdowns; he didn't score on a return in 2025. His 46-yard kickoff return with 98 seconds left set up a go-ahead touchdown in the 40-40 tie with Green Bay, and his alert Thanksgiving fumble recovery preserved a drive that ended in a field goal during a three-point win over Kansas City.
He's grown as a receiver too, with 31 catches for 420 yards and two touchdowns in 2024, then 26 for 396 yards and two scores at 15.2 yards per catch last year. Dallas sits 1-1 after losing to the Giants and beating Washington, while Philadelphia is already 2-0 at the NFC's summit. On current volume, a third straight return title looks realistic.
2. Chimere Dike, Tennessee Titans
If anyone threatens the crown, it's the second-year man with an All-Pro nod of his own. Taken 103rd overall in the fourth round in 2025, Chimere Dike earned First-team All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors as a punt returner and a PFWA All-Rookie spot. His 17.3 yards on 23 punt returns tied for the league lead; he scored twice, including a 90-yarder against Seattle, and added 1,588 yards on 62 kickoffs.
A 144-yard debut at Denver set the tone before he broke Tim Brown's 1988 rookie all-purpose record against New Orleans. He added 48 catches, 423 yards, and four touchdowns. Year two is harder. With Carnell Tate and Wan'Dale Robinson arriving, his offensive snaps have shrunk, and he's managed seven kick returns for 163 yards and two punt returns for four through two weeks. But Tennessee is 0-2, and losing teams field plenty of kickoffs.
3. Rashid Shaheed, Seattle Seahawks
By résumé alone, nobody here matches him. Undrafted out of Weber State, where he set the FCS career record with seven kickoff return touchdowns, Rashid Shaheed scored on his first NFL touch in 2022 and was a First-team All-Pro by 2023, when he also caught 46 passes for 719 yards and five scores.
Traded from New Orleans to Seattle last November, he delivered immediately: a 100-yard kickoff return touchdown at Atlanta, a 58-yard punt return score in a 38-37 overtime win over the Rams, then the opening kickoff to the house in the Divisional Round rout of San Francisco. Five career return touchdowns, two Pro Bowls, a Super Bowl LX ring, and a three-year, $51 million extension followed.
Seattle is 2-0, having conceded just 17 points, despite losing star quarterback Sam Darnold just a handful of snaps into their Lombardi defense. Can he really be judged fairly against this group when his own team may not need him to produce a single return yard between now and January?
4. Skyy Moore, Green Bay Packers
Reinvention stories rarely look this tidy. Kansas City spent the 54th pick of the 2022 draft on Skyy Moore, and though the receiving career never took off, he left with two Super Bowl rings, a Super Bowl LVII touchdown, and a 29-yard punt return in the AFC Championship Game's final minute that set up the winning field goal.
The catches faded — 22 as a rookie, 21 in 2023, five for 87 yards in San Francisco last season. The return work didn't: 1,198 yards at 20.7 per attempt for the 49ers, with a 98-yard long but no touchdown.
Green Bay's one-year, $2.5 million bet has already paid off: 208 return yards in the overtime win over the Jets, and 134 more on five kickoffs in Thursday's loss to Atlanta. Through three games, he leads the NFL in both kick and punt return yardage, with Green Bay 1-2. A first career return touchdown would complete the transformation.
5. Myles Price, Minnesota Vikings
Then there's the name few outside Minnesota know. Undrafted in 2025 out of Indiana after four seasons at Texas Tech, Myles Price turned 57 kick returns into 1,479 yards and 30 punt returns into 298 more — 1,777 combined, a Vikings single-season record.
Is there a cleaner illustration of his rookie volume than becoming the first player since Darius Reynaud in 2012 to reach 50 kick returns and 30 punt returns in one season? Six games of 130-plus kick return yards were the most since Josh Cribbs in 2009. He's yet to catch a regular-season pass, though a four-catch, one-touchdown preseason debut hinted at more.
The 2026 season has so far been electric: 179 yards on five kick returns, including a 68-yarder, in the opener against Green Bay, and 221 at 31.6 per attempt through two weeks for a 2-0 side atop the NFC North. A first return touchdown is the obvious next step.