You won’t be able to see him if you blink. In the voting for the Pro Bowl Games, Rashid Shaheed is in first place among the NFC return specialists. The National Football League (NFL) declared this week that the second-year standout is a rising star in the game. He is the only player on the New Orleans Saints to lead his position group in voting following the first round of fan polls.
And it is not hard to understand why. There is only one player in the league who has a better pace while fielding as many punts as Shaheed does, and that is Los Angeles Chargers receiver Derius Davis, who has 16.6 yards per return on 19 tries. Shaheed has missed a game due to an injury, but he is still one of the top-performing punt returners. He has averaged 14.4 yards per pop on 18 returns.
It is also noteworthy that Shaheed’s 343 kick return yards are the second-best in the NFL. There is only one player who has more total return yards on punts and kickoffs this season, and that person is Keisean Nixon of the Green Bay Packers. Nixon’s punt return average of 8.1 yards is rather low in comparison to other players’ averages. When it comes to volume and efficiency, there are very few players that can compete with Shaheed.
We can only hope that Shaheed will be able to get back to work as soon as possible and keep producing in order to earn his first Pro Bowl selection. Since he was unable to participate in the game the previous week due to a thigh injury, which has also prevented him from participating in practice to begin this week, we will continue to monitor his condition going forward.
Those fans who are interested in casting their vote for Shaheed (and the other Saints players who are on the ballot this year) can do so on the official website of the Saints, which can be found here, as well as on ProBowl.com/Vote. Later in December, voting will become available on other social media platforms.
