Tom McMahon Addresses Leader in the Clubhouse for Broncos' Punt Returner Duties

The Broncos had Jerry Jeudy fielding punts on Sunday. Does that mean the rookie is vying for the punt returner job? Tom McMahon addressed the issue.

During Sunday's training camp session, Denver Broncos' rookie wideout Jerry Jeudy was returning punts. It might seem odd that the Broncos' first-round pick would be given that task, because he never handled those duties in college.

But following Sunday's practice, special teams coordinator Tom McMahon revealed that he doesn't expect Jeudy to be one of the Broncos' return men. Rather, McMahon said, his intent is to get Jeudy used to it in case it's absolutely necessary.

"He would be, in my opinion right now, more of an emergency guy," McMahon told reporters Sunday afternoon. "He does catch the ball well, but he has never caught one amongst traffic and returned one before he got here. NFL punts are very hard to catch."

Second-round wideout KJ Hamler was expected to be one of the candidates competing for the return man job. However, Hamler will miss a couple weeks with a hamstring injury. McMahon said Hamler has done well with those duties when healthy, however, as well as undrafted rookie wideout Kendall Hinton.

And then there's Diontae Spencer, whom the Broncos claimed off waivers from the Pittsburgh Steelers on the doorstep of the 2019 season. Spencer started off slowly, but by season's end, was effective.

McMahon is not handing the job to Spencer, though. The special teams coach said the job is still up for grabs.

"I’ll be honest with you, I’m going to be—for Spence and everybody—I’m going to get the best returner back there that we can," McMahon said. "If somebody beats Spence out. They deserve to be it. If Spence beats everybody out, he deserves to be out punt returner.

"I’ve never gone into a season and tried to predetermine who that guy should be. I didn’t even know who Diontae Spencer was last year. We were blessed to get him."

Fans love to see big returns on punts and kickoffs, but it's been a while since the Broncos have had a return man who was a threat to take a punt or kickoff to the opponent's end zone.

McMahon said it's hard to say whether or not the Broncos will have a unit that's capable of big returns, or one capable of getting big plays from the coverage team. He said the lack of a preseason makes it harder to figure out what the Broncos could offer. At the same time, that applies to every other team.

"We have no idea who—I’m talking about our first two opponents," McMahon said. "I think that’s the biggest thing. Big-play-wise, I think the biggest worry for all of us especially special teams coordinators is we average 23 to 28 punts every preseason, punt returns, kickoffs. You get to see the guys cover, and your special teams players play in the preseason.

"It’s much different—I get it—than offense and defense, but these guys, your core guys are out there playing, and you can see if they’re ready. It does worry me, but I don’t have that answer."

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What should help the punt coverage unit is having veteran Sam Martin at punter. After two seasons of mediocre punting, Martin was added as a free agent. McMahon said the veteran has a unique ability when punting the ball.

"The thing that Sam has been able to do in his eight-year career is punt the ball to the right," McMahon said. "It’s a very difficult thing. There are about three guys that can do it. He’s doing it in practice for us right now. All these punters can punt to their left if you’re a righty. A lot of you have played baseball. Your homerun ball is out to left field. If you hit a baseball just like a punter it’s easy to punt to the left. It’s hard to punt down the right field line."

Most of all, Martin does a good job of forcing return men to adjust to the ball, the special teams coach said.

"What we’re seeing in practice is he’s able to force our returners to run all the way from one sideline to the other, and they don’t know where the ball is being punted," McMahon said.

The third phase is often overlooked, but Broncos fans were paying attention last season because of poor punting and a return game that took time to take shape. But between the addition of Martin and the addition of several receivers with return experience, the hope is that this aspect of the game will be better than it has been in recent seasons.

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