It appeared painfully apparent throughout the Buffalo Payments preseason — the crew had returner drawback, they usually might have simply solved it after NFL cutdown day.
In accordance the Talbots, Damon and Ryan, the Payments are anticipated to signal veteran receiver and return man Greg Dortch to their observe squad:
I can’t stress sufficient how a lot I am in favor of this transaction for the Payments. Dortch has 99 punt returns and 75 kick returns in his NFL profession thus far. In order that solves the returner drawback. Regardless that Dortch does have six fumbles on these 174 returns, he is undeniably a veteran returner.
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A season in the past, Dortch completed eleventh within the NFL in common return yards on punts at 11.6, which represented the fourth-consecutive season wherein he upped his punt-return common and the primary time he raised that common to double-digit yardage.
Secondly, Dortch is, in fact, a receiver, and that is nonetheless a place group I felt the Payments had room so as to add expertise to forward of the start of the common season.
In 2022, Dortch performed on 42.5% of the Cardinals snaps and was respectably productive, amassing 467 yards on 52 receptions with a pair of receiving touchdowns. He failed to achieve 40% of Arizona’s offensive snaps in any of the next three seasons and averaged 34 snags for 313 yards and three touchdowns per yr.
Dortch has confirmed to be comparatively sure-handed as a twitchy, beneath choice. He is dropped simply 4 passes on 184 targets as an expert. And, for a 5’7″, 175-pound receiver, Dortch’s 40% contested-catch win price is fairly spectacular.
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However for me, a longtime believer within the significance of YAC within the fashionable NFL, what Dortch has confirmed to be able to with the ball in his arms is most tantalizing concerning the addition for the Payments when contemplating his receiver profile.
Final season, on simply 29 receptions, Dortch pressured 12 missed tackles. That is absurd. For perspective, Jameson Williams pressured the identical quantity of missed tackles on 65 catches (within the common season). And the 2025 season wasn’t an outlier for Dortch.
Cardinals receiver Greg Dortch (4) sprints upfield for a primary down towards the Commanders throughout a sport at State Farm Stadium in Glendale on Sept. 29, 2024. | USA TODAY Community through Reuters Co
In 2024, on a mere 37 catches, he pressured 13 missed tackles, the identical quantity as Ladd McConkey pressured on 82 receptions. The dude is a YAC machine… he is a receiver that cornerbacks, safeties, and linebackers don’t wish to see in house.
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Roughly two-thirds of Dortch’s profession snaps have come from the slot, which may spark extra pre-snap alignment flexibility for Khalil Shakir who’s appeared inside on over 70% of his snaps in every of the previous three common seasons with the Payments.
The cherry on prime? Dortch, who’s 28 years outdated, spent 2021-2025 with Payments particular groups coordinator Jeff Rodgers in Arizona.
I hope this text would not learn as if I consider the Payments have simply signed an All-Professional to their observe squad with Dortch.
However he checks all of the packing containers for what the crew wanted at (punt) returner. And he provides skilled depth — with a specialised talent (YAC!)— to a receiver group that indisputably was ripe for an infusion of veteran expertise.
(oh, and he was born in Rochester, New York)
