Exit interviews: Detroit's special teams dipped in 2025 with plenty of uncertainty heading into the offseason

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Wrapping up the Detroit Lions’ 2025 season, we’re doing our annual position-by-position evaluation of the roster. Today, we’ll close out the series with a look at team’s specialists.

The straightforward stats

Jack Fox: 17 games, 56 punts, 46.6-yard gross average, 42.8-yard net average, 28 punts inside the 20-yard line, two touchbacks

Jake Bates: 17 games, 27-for-34 on field goals with a long of 59 yards, 54-of-56 on extra points, 99 kickoffs with a 17.2% touchback rate, four tackles

Hogan Hatton: 17 games, 147 snaps, two tackles

Kalif Raymond: 32 punt returns, 7.5-yard average, six kickoff returns, 26.8-yard average

Jacob Saylors: 33 kickoff returns, 27.2-yard average

Tom Kennedy: Three punt returns, 16.7-yard average, 16 kickoff returns, 27.9-yard average

Advanced metrics

Let’s start with Fox, who was coming off an All-Pro, record-breaking season where he established a new bar for net punting. Of course, that’s a stat that hinges on several additional factors, including field position and coverage units, so his decline in 2025 wasn’t shocking.

Despite an average hangtime that ranked in the bottom half of the league’s punters, no one forced more fair catches than Fox. Plus, he didn’t have a touchback until Week 15, finishing with just two on the season.

For Bates, there was also a decline in field goal conversion rate, dropping from 89.7% as a rookie in 2024 to 79.4% in 2025. Of his seven misses, five came from 50 yards and beyond, including a 67-yard try in Baltimore. Notably, nearly all the non-blocked misses were wide left.

In the return game, the Lions were decidedly average and lacked explosiveness outside of a Raymond punt return for a touchdown in Week 4. He also provided the team’s longest kickoff return, a 44-yard effort. Across the league, 34 players had a longer kickoff return in 2025.

Best performance

In the team’s Week 4 win over Cleveland, not only did Raymond have a 65-yard touchdown return that broke the game open in the second half, Bates made all six of his kicks, including a pair of field goals, punctuated by a 58-yard boot.

As for Fox, all five of his punts finished inside the 20-yard line, while the coverage unit minimized the impact of the Browns’ return game.

Worst performance

In a Week 9 loss to the Vikings, the Lions allowed the opposition to return their first kickoff 61 yards, leading to a touchdown. The team also allowed for one of Bates’ two field-goal tries to be blocked in the three-point loss.

Where the special teams got better in 2025

Fox’s ability to keep the ball out of the end zone on punts was stellar, particularly since he had 28 efforts inside the 20-yard line.

Areas of needed improvement

Bates has the leg strength, but needs to tighten up his mechanics this offseason to prevent him from pulling his longer efforts to the left.

In the return game, the Lions could use all-around improvement, starting with the blocking. Schematic changes should also be considered on kickoffs. Coordinator Dave Fipp has his guys focused on getting vertical, designed to limit lost yardage on a horizontal path, but the team is sacrificing the opportunity for bigger returns.

Then, on punts, Raymond’s 7.5-yard average, with the team checking in at 8.3 yards per return, falls short of expectations.

Long-term vision for the position

Fox is entering the final year of his contract, and the team’s approach with an extension will be interesting, given how frequently they go for it on fourth down and the increasing number of short fields punters are seeing with the revamped kickoff setup.

With Bates, he’s an exclusive rights free agent this offseason, effectively ensuring he’ll be back for 2026. There’s value in adding camp competition, but he’ll be tough to beat out for the job.

After that, it’s up in the air. The Lions still heartily believe in Bates’ potential. He’s undeniably been steady inside 50 yards, and he’s quickly improving on kickoffs, but he can strengthen his case for an extension with more consistency beyond 50 yards.

The future of the return game is wide open. Raymond and Kennedy are unrestricted free agents, while Saylors is an exclusive rights option. If the team moves on from Raymond after five productive seasons, they could look to the draft for a replacement. With the changes to the kickoff format ensuring far more returns, teams really need two capable return men.

One internal option is Sione Vaki, but he hasn’t been able to seize control of the role after getting a handful of opportunities during his first two seasons.

Finally, there are multiple moving parts with its coverage units. Most of Detroit’s top special teams performers are scheduled to be free agents, including Grant Stuard, Malcolm Rodriguez, Trevor Nowaske, Daniel Thomas, Rock Ya-Sin and Tyrus Wheat.