Is Ray-Ray McCloud the next great Steelers Kick Returner?

The Steelers have had a lot of kick returners of the years and many great ones. It looks as though the Steelers may have found another excellent kick returner in Ray-Ray McCloud.

McCloud has not stayed anywhere for long in his short NFL career. In three years, he has played for just as many teams Buffalo, Carolina, and now Pittsburgh. Carolina had cut McCloud amid the  2019 Season and resigned with the Bills’ practice squad. The Bills released him in July of 2020 then the Steelers pulled the trigger and signed him.

Most fans probably had not heard of McCloud before the Steelers signing him, let alone think he could make a difference for the team. Prior to entering the NFL, McCloud played at Clemson, catching 127 passes for 1226 yards and four touchdowns.

Entering the first game of this season, its unlikely anyone had any serious expectations of his performance as a kick returner. What a difference three games can make. McCloud has gone from being unknown to a potentially great kick returner for the Steelers.

Sure, no one can consider McCloud a great Steelers kick returner yet; however, he has put up some great numbers in his first three games, and if this trend continues, he could have one of the greatest seasons as a Steelers kick returner. At face value, his statistics do not seem overly impressive, but statistics can be deceiving at times.

Against the Giants, he had one kick return for 33 yards. Against Denver, he only had two returns yet had 64 return yards giving him 32 yards per return average. In the Houston game, he had four total returns. Two punt returns for 25 yards and a 12.5 return average. He also had two kick off returns for 47 yards giving him a 23.50 yards per return average. Here is the impressive statistic, though. In just three games, Ray-Ray McCloud has the 12th best yards per return season average in Steelers history at 28.80.

Even in Antonio Brown’s best season, he only averaged 27.30 yards per return, and Rod Woodson only had 27.28 yards per return in his best season. Everyone else who has had better yards per return average for a single season had no more than seven kick returns except for Gary Ballman in 1963, who had 22 returns for a 31.73 return average, and Mel Blount in 1970 had 18 returns for with a 29.72 yards per return average.

Now we are headed into game four with the Eagles. So one of the questions this week is how McCloud will perform in this contest. Certainly, every time he has touched the ball, he has caused excitement and has come close to breaking a return for a touchdown.

If he can maintain his current pace or breaks a long return, which he has the potential to do, he could increase his yards per return average. The best single-season for a kick returner came in 1996, but Andre Hastings, who set the mark, only had one kick return for 42 yards. So interestingly enough, McCloud has the potential to equal or surpass that mark while exceeding 20 plus returns in one season as well.

Whether McCloud can reach this come close to tieing or breaking this record remains to be seen. There are still 13 games left. What is certain, though, it will be lots of fun watching McCloud to continue returning kicks for the Steelers.