I think the article has a point as it relates to Devin Hester. It does not, however, apply to Ted Ginn Jr. that well and I will tell you why.
The reason you don't often see full time PR and KR guys achieving long term success is because they are generally specialized, marginally talented players whose talents are tailored for the return business.
If you are more than that as a player, you generally end up finding a bigger and more important role with the team elsewhere. That is the bottom line.
Derrick Mason and Steve Smith are prime examples. Steve Smith has 6 career return touchdowns (and that's not even counting one he had in the playoffs). During his first three seasons in the NFL, when he performed the duty full time, he had at least one touchdown in each season...5 in his first two seasons. He averaged a touchdown for every 45 returns. Why doesn't Steve Smith continue returning punts? Because he happens to be one of the most valuable receivers in the game right now, and coaches don't generally put premium players out there on returns to risk getting injured. They're too important to the team in other ways.
Another prime example would be Deion Sanders. He returned 6 punts for touchdowns and 3 kicks for touchdowns. He averaged a return touchdown for every 41 returns.
Did they have as many returns in their career as Dante Hall does? The answer is no. Over a 14 year career, Deion had 155 kickoff returns and 212 punt returns. He averaged 26 returns a year. Steve Smith was active on returns his first three years but has certainly tailed off those duties now. He has averaged 44 returns per year but that average will clearly be going down with each passing year.
Does that mean Steve Smith or Deion Sanders were less dangerous on returns, once they got past that early period of their careers where they were used on returns full time? The answer is no. In fact, their teams think they're so dangerous on returns that they generally continued to use them in special situations. Perfect example is the 2005 playoffs. The Panthers are down and the Seahawks have found a way to literally triple-team Steve Smith without getting burnt elsewhere. The Panthers feel like they need a spark, and by that point they had taken Steve Smith off return duties and put Chris Gamble on them. Why? Because Smith was on his way to a 103 catch season. Still, they're now in the playoffs, chips are down and they need a spark so they go back to the well, have Steve Smith return a punt. He promptly took it to the house.
I remember similarly how Deion Sanders would come in on returns later in his career for special situations when his team felt they needed a spark.
But the bottom line is players that are that good, to where they could achieve consistent success returning punts and kicks for touchdowns, they generally end up being good enough to be good receivers or good corners or good runningbacks...and then they become too valuable to risk injury by continuing to have them return full time.
Not to mention, once a guy gets a reputation for being a dangerous returner, there are all kinds of things the kicking teams can do to take them out of the game and minimize their returns. Those tactics have their benefits to the team with the dangerous return man in terms of field position average, but that doesn't make its way onto a return man's personal stats.
I find it odd the idea that we would be comparing Ted Ginn Jr., who was one of the most electric RECEIVERS in the college game his final two seasons, with guys like Dante Hall, Michael Lewis and Desmond Howard...players whose skill sets were specialized enough so as to be good return men but who were not so talented as to be valuable football players on offense or defense.
By comparing Ted Ginn Jr. to those players, you're already making a BIG presupposition that I am not comfortable making...and that is that Ted Ginn Jr. does not become a valuable NFL WR. If he's not good enough to do that, then I believe he does indeed fall into the category of specialty returners that were not great offensive or defensive football players, and therefore couldn't cut it long term.
The best returners, the ones that have a chance to be consistently dangerous, generally don't end up allowed to return the ball full time. That's the bottom line.
So the article is accurate as it relates to Devin Hester, but accurate as it relates to Ted Ginn Jr. ONLY inasmuch as we can probably expect Ted Ginn to be a part-time returner within 4 years of entering the league, because he'll be too valuable as a receiver to risk the injury on a full time basis.
