Bills face special teams test against explosive Patriots returners

ORCHARD PARK - One of the best ways for an inferior team to pull off an upset in the NFL is to win that third phase of football that coaches love to preach about, but fans don’t often pay much attention to: Special teams.

Games can be won or lost solely because of the kicking game, and that comes in a variety of forms. It could be due to a great field goal kicker, or a great return man running a kickoff or punt back for a touchdown, or dominating field position which can help limit the effectiveness of an offense.

Sunday night, the improving New England Patriots are primed to give the undefeated Buffalo Bills a big test regardless of what the Las Vegas oddsmakers seem to think, and part of the challenge they will present comes in the kicking game, especially when the Bills’ new punter, Mitch Wishnowsky, is on the field.

“They’ve built a really explosive roster,” coach Sean McDermott said. “They’ve got a lot of team speed, in particular at the returner position. I think they’ve got three returns for touchdowns if you include the preseason as well. So very impressed by what they’ve done, and we’re going to have to play a great game on special teams for sure.”

Patriots punt returner Marcus Jones was named AFC special teams player of the week after his remarkable performance in last week’s thrashing of the Carolina Panthers.

Jones set a franchise record with 167 punt return yards and he needed just three attempts to do so - an 87-yarder for a touchdown, a 61-yarder that set up the Patriots at Carolina’s 14 for an easy touchdown, and finally a 19-yarder for a drive start at the Panthers 41 which also resulted in a quick touchdown. Three punt great punt returns resulted in 21 Patriots points in their 42-13 blowout.

“He’s a really strong runner,” said Bills core special teamer Reggie Gilliam. “Not only is he a strong runner, but he’s a burner, too. He’s got the speed to get to the edge, but he’ll get to the edge and break tackles as well. So, he’s the full package in a returner.

“Yeah, they’ve got a great unit. Our coverage unit’s got to cover the field because they’ve got some really explosive returners. Not only are the returners explosive, but their guys, their core guys are good. They’ve got a lot of bigger body guys and once they get their hands on you, it’s bad news, as you’ve seen against the Dolphins and the (Panthers). If we can’t get off a block, it’s going to get ugly.”

McDermott never fails to talk about the importance of being sound on special teams, and his team has dealt with a little adversity in that area.

Bills have a new punter - again

Wishnowsky is their third punter in five weeks after the release of Brad Robbins and the injury that Cameron Johnston suffered last week. He had been the 49ers punter from 2019 through mid-2024 when he got hurt and went on season-ending injured reserve. The 33-year-old Australian, who kicked in two Super Bowls for San Francisco, ranks second in franchise history with a 45.6 gross average per punt. He was on Washington’s practice squad until Sept. 13.

In the return game, McDermott upended things against New Orleans when he scratched Brandon Codrington from the game. That meant Khalil Shakir was deep on punts while Ty Johnson and Curtis Samuel - playing his first game of the year - were deep on kickoffs.

Samuel looked competent as he averaged 27.3 yards on three attempts with a long of 31. After his returns, the Bills had drive starts at their own 34, 28 and 31. Codrington averaged 29 yards on nine attempts with a long of 41.

On punts, Codrington - who ranked fourth in the league at 11.6 yards per attempt last season - was only at 5.3 this season on seven attempts.

Asked where the return game stood this week, McDermott said Wednesday before practice, “Yeah, we’ll see. We’re gonna look at it today, see how it goes. I think anything and everything right now is up in the air in terms of where we’ll go with it.”

Like McDermott, New England coach Mike Vrabel places the same level of importance on special teams, especially with the new kickoff rules and the recent success teams have had blocking kicks. Those have been some of the most impactful plays of this young NFL season.

“We always want to be sound in every area,” Vrabel said. “We want to make sure that we’re protecting our punter and kicker, especially with the uptick here with the field goal blocks that have determined games. Just not taking anything for granted, whether that’s an extra point, that’s a short field goal. And then there’s great athletes as punt returners, and ball placement is critical, the coverage lanes and all those things are critical. We saw what happened to us against Miami, but then also we were able to kind of come back and have a great day in punt return (last Sunday). Just never taking a play off, really. That could determine the outcome.”

Rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson had a 100-yard kickoff return touchdown in New England’s preseason opener, though on six attempts in the regular season he has averaged a mundane 21.8 yards. Of course, he’s not the primary man on kickoffs; that would be Antonio Gibson and back in Week 2, he broke a 90-yard touchdown return against Miami that gave the Patriots the lead for good in the fourth quarter.

Jones leads the NFL with a 28.2 average on his seven punt returns, this after he averaged 14.8 yards in 2024 which ranked second only to Denver’s Marvin Mims.

“They’re a very aggressive team, they like to stick with their bigger guys, but they’re all fast and pretty physical, and they play smart, they play together, they know where their return is,” said Sam Franklin, who the Bills signed just before the season began because he has been a great special teams player throughout his career. “They know how to get their returner going and they’ve got some really good returners. So, I mean, it’s an all-around complete special teams team.”

Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, he has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at [email protected], and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills face special teams test against surging Patriots