Gary Russell. Felix Jones. Najeh Davenport. These are just a sampling of offensive players deemed “the guy” on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ return units under Mike Tomlin. It’s a common source of frustration for fans with middling return numbers and the failure to find an impact player who could stick for more than two seasons.
And whether there is an actual causation here or not, there certainly is, at the least, a correlation between who the Steelers deem as their punt and/or kick returners. Under Tomlin, only one defensive player has seen the majority of kick or punt returns in a single season.