One position on the Raiders roster that doesn’t get discussed much, but probably should be is return specialist. It has become one of the more deep positions on the team, with several very good options to line up there.
Last season, the Raiders had one return specialist. One. It was DeAndre Carter who is no longer on the team. He returned both kicks and punts.
This year, those duties could go to as many as five different players on the team.
If you look at the depth chart on the Raiders website, they have Ameer Abdullah, DJ Turner, and Dylan Laube listed as kick returners and Tre Tucker and Abdullah as punt returners.
It was Abdullah who was the team’s primary kick returner back in 2022, which explains his spot atop the depth chart. Turner returned a few kicks and punts that season as well. Tucker was originally drafted for his speed and was electric returning punts this preseason. And Laube was drafted this year in part because the team hoped he would be a a good fit for the new kickoff rules. Though he didn’t show much in preseason.
The funny thing is, though, it may be that none of them are the team’s primary return specialist this season. That job could go to former CFLer Tyreik McAllister.
“I remember the first time Tyreik caught a punt return and it wasn’t even a full cover,” Abdullah recalled. “He just went along his track and he was just dat-dat-dat-dat-dat. His feet was just kinda like the Roadrunner. I was like ‘that dude can spin’. And to see it in live action, it just shows that it translates. I think the world of him.”
When Abdullah says it translates, he’s speaking of McCallister’s 81-yard punt return for a touchdown in the team’s preseason finale against the 49ers while averaging 30 yards per kick return in the preseason opener in Minnesota
McAllister put up return records last season with the CFL’s Hamilton Tigercats. The Raiders brought him in for that reason and he was a mainstay with the return specialists throughout the offseason and camp. The skills he put on display in the CFL showed up big time for the Raiders and earned him a place on the Raiders roster.
This does present a bit of a dilemma, though, for head coach Antonio Pierce.
McAllister lit up two of the preseason games on kicks and punts and Tucker showed off his speed with a 43-yard punt return in the second preseason game against the Cowboys. So, who gets the job come the season? That’s a good problem to have. And it sounds like the team is leaning toward McAllister.
“One is cool. Two’s better,” Pierce said of picking between Tucker and McAllister. “I mean, to be honest, McAllister’s role on offense is still to be determined, but we know what he can do. We’ve all seen that, and he did that even as a kickoff returner. . . And we got to be smart, right? Tre Tucker is one of our starting receivers, so McAllister has a role. I don’t know, is it this guy this week? Is it that guy? Is it the hot hand? But I think both guys have done an outstanding job now in the return game. I think we’ve seen that both as punt returners, and McAllister punt return and kickoff return.”
Tucker is impressing the team more and more as a receiver, so it could be smart to keep him focused on that. And with the depth they clearly have at return specialist, along with McAllister’s return talents, they have the luxury of making that decision.