When the Detroit Lions placed former All-Pro return specialist Kalif Raymond on injured reserve following their win against the Colts, they found themselves without a clear-cut option at punt returner.
“We’ve been fortunate here because we’ve had Kalif back there my whole time here,” special teams coordinator Dave Fipp said this week. “He’s just incredible that way, makes good decisions, he fields the ball, you don’t really have to worry about that as much, and people tend to forget that that could be an issue until all of a sudden it pops up.”
Fipp understands it is not easy to just put another player back there to field punts.