Panthers RB was quietly among NFL’s best kick returners in 2023. Will 2024 be even better?
Hop in the film room with Raheem Blackshear, the Carolina Panthers’ reserve running back and starting kick returner, and you might hear some questions you haven’t previously considered.
One will probably be about how the ball is coming off the opposing kicker’s foot. Another is likely about the surface of the stadium, about how much the ball bounces if it hits the ground. Another: If the kicker misfires, which way does the ball go?
“I’m looking at everything,” Blackshear told The Charlotte Observer on Monday.
That studying certainly paid off a year ago.
Could the results be even better in 2024?
Blackshear thinks so.
In many ways the Panthers’ 2023 season was defined by an offense that lacked explosiveness and creativity. That wasn’t the case, however, in the kick return game.
The former undrafted free agent out of Rutgers and Virginia Tech — who was mostly a practice squad guy before carving out a role for himself as a kick returner under Frank Reich — quietly put together a season last year that placed him among the best kick returners in the NFL: Among all players who returned 16 or more kicks in 2023, only one had a better yards-per-return average than Blackshear. The Panther averaged 26.9 yards per return; Velus Jones Jr. of the Chicago Bears averaged 27.2.
Heading into the team’s second week of the preseason, Blackshear is listed as the No. 1 kick returner on the depth chart. He didn’t play in the first preseason game — one of 33 guys who didn’t suit up on Thursday against the New England Patriots — and it’s unclear if he’ll play when the New York Jets visit Bank of America Stadium at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Those reps, particularly with the league’s new kickoff rule, will come in time. Some may come when the Jets visit the Panthers Thursday for a joint practice prior to the game.
Blackshear said he’s excited about the oft-discussed rule changes to the kickoff, which are meant to bring one of the game’s most electrifying set-ups back into the fold after years of it largely being a formality, as kickers booted balls into the backs of endzones that resulted in more touchbacks and less fun. Among the ways in which the new rules are accomplishing that goal: The new kickoff set-up requires kickers to kick into a landing zone — between the 20-yard line and the goal line — and makes it so the kicking team cannot move until the returner fields the ball.
In other words, as Blackshear put it:
“Can’t keep the ball away from me now,” he said with a smile. “You gotta find a way to get it to me. It’s going to be fun.”
Blackshear’s teammates think it’ll be fun, too. Tight end Jordan Matthews, who was drafted in 2014 and has been a special teams ace this offseason, loves what he’s seen from Blackshear and thinks the new rules can uniquely suit him.
When asked about Blackshear’s quietly great year in 2023, Matthews chuckled: “Well, it’s not surprising to me.”
“He’s twitchy. He’s got great vision. He’s got amazing burst, too, once he sees the alley, or the hole. And he’s tough,” Matthews continued. “I think the way the new kickoff is, it really feels like a big Oklahoma drill” — a since-outlawed drill where a blocker and a defender go head-to-head while a ball-carrier tries to sneak by — “because you don’t have the time to really gain a ton of speed as the kickoff team. Let’s say you make one knife move, and now you’re on this side of the guy blocking you. Dude, the guy’s already got the ball running. ...
“For a running back, that’s just an Oklahoma drill. That’s an advantage. That’s what he’s used to doing. He’s used to seeing guys pick up gaps and find holes, so I think we’re definitely at an advantage as a kickoff return team having him back there.”
It’s true Blackshear is more than a returner. He’s a third healthy running back in a stable full of them, behind Chuba Hubbard and Miles Sanders at the moment. He said rookie and second-round pick Jonathon Brooks will “fit right in with us” once he’s healthy from knee surgery, and the one word he used to describe Dave Canales was “energy.”
But questions always come back to the return game for Blackshear. It’s a niche he’s quietly but pointedly carved out for himself. After practice Monday, he spent about 15 minutes on the JUGS machine — he wasn’t catching perfectly thrown passes; he instead was anticipating where footballs will bounce off the ground, emulating kickoffs, putting his film study to the test.
He drew a hypothesis from all that on Monday.
“I’m going to score a couple times this year,” Blackshear said. “That’s my plan.”
This story was originally published August 13, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
