Tyreek Hill’s punt return for a TD reportedly cost a Vikings player $100K

The San Diego Chargers would have been thrilled if Chiefs rookie Tyreek Hill would have called for a fair catch late in third third quarter of Sunday’s game.

Ditto for the Vikings’ Marcus Sherels.

Instead, Hill fielded the punt and took it back for a 95-yard touchdown return. That helped Hill finish the season with an NFL-leading 15.2 yards per return. Had Hill not returned that kick, his average would have been 13.1 yards per return.

As ESPN’s Field Yates notes, Sherels lost out on a big bonus because of that Hill punt return.

Sherels averaged 13.9 yards per his 21 returns, so he’d have finished ahead of Hill if not for that last kick.*

*I’m not sure what the minimum number of returns is needed to be on the list, because the Texans’ Will Fuller averaged 15.0 yards per his 11 returns.

I wonder what Hill’s average would have been if teammate Steven Nelson had accidentally knocked Hill out of bounds on the return (it almost happened).

Just for the heck of it, let’s take one more look at that Hill return:

This story was originally published January 2, 2017 at 7:39 PM.