Bills' Brandon Tate: Kickoff returns lacking

Tate finished the 2017 campaign with a 19.6-yard average on 28 kickoff returns and a 9.7-yard average on 20 punt returns. He also caught six passes for 81 yards and a touchdown while occasionally chipping in on offense.

The punt return average put Tate sixth in the NFL, but the kickoff return work was lacking and his worst per-return average in his lengthy NFL career. The latter ranked him last among the 12 NFL players with enough attempts to qualify on the league's special teams leaderboard. Tate, who's been in the league since 2009, is now an unrestricted free agent and there's talk the Bills will let him go and look for something a little more youthful with more upside in the return game. The receiver-needy Bills could also use someone that fills the spot as a return specialist while also offering a better potential than Tate for offensive duty.