NFL.com had a section on top 15 returners of all time. I was shocked to see Leon on there with some of the greats. http://www.nfl.com/photo/photo-gallery?chronicleId=09000d5d804d5131
A little premature for Leon, I can name about 4 or 5 Jets that were better including Bobby Humphrey, Bruce Harper, Aaron Glenn, Bake Turner, Chad Morton...
Agreed. I love Leon but he doesn't belong with this group. I agree with MR17, not sure if he is even the best Jet returner.......and to go further, he may not be the best returner on the roster if Miller is healthy, but that is debatable.
It's amazing they even dare mention him in the same breath as Gale Sayers, who was the greatest KR ever....
In their last season at Shea, Jets were beating Atlanta 17-0 in the rain. Then Billy White Shoes happened and it was 21-17 Atlanta. I'm probably off on the score but he had a kick return, a punt return and a bomb, 2 of them for TD's and one of them down to the 1 yard line. I was there and remember it like it was yesterday. He singlehandedly killed us.
Leon only did it for 1 year so obviously that has to be factored in BUT he did average 27.5 per return w/ 3 TDs. Humpherey's career KOR average was 22.9 and he had 2 TDs in his career. Bruce Harper was a better PR than KR, his career KOR average was 22.3 w/ zero TDs. Aaron Glenn's KOR career average is 22.8(23.2 w/ NYJ) w/ 1 career TD. Bake Turner's career KOR avg was 22.5(21.5 w/ NYJ) w/ zero TDs. Chad Morton's career KOR average was 23.6(25.1 w/ NYJ) w/ 3 TDs. I think Leon's '07 was the best season by a Jets KR, a few guys averaged more per return but nobody had 3 TDs in one season. Billy only averaged 23.9 per return w/ only 2 TDs. Now way back when they kicked off from the 35 not the 30 so that helps today's KR's but Leon's '07 still holds his own against just about anyone's careers. 21 yards per return w/ zero TDs. His best year was 22.9 per KOR. Deion was a great PR not KR. He averaged 22.7 per KOR but he did have 3 TDs. His best season was 26.7 w/ 2 TDs, Leon averaged 27.5 w/ 3 TDs last year.
If Leon can have any where near last type of Season KR wise then he will already be pushing his way up the all time KR TD list. A little early? Sure. But after one more year or two its not out of the question. If both he and Miller are healthy I'd to see them both back there. Who the hell would you kick to? Its a great "problem" to have.
We've actuallly had ALOT of good kick returners in the last several years. Even before Westhoff. Dwight stone, Kevin Williams, Chad Morton, Justin Miller, and now Neon Loen.
They always seem to fall in our laps. ironically the one time we reached out for one specifically...it bit us in the ass. See Dexter Carter.
well we are typically returning kickoffs more than anyone else so i guess we get more practice. nyj not sure where you got those stats but i would be interested to see how leon johnson faired. he was always a favorite of mine since his first game at unc (god i wish i could remember the other kids name, but they had 2 freshman rbs who were killers and leon was one of them.) he was big but somehow managed to return kicks which always seemed odd to me.
