Giants 2024 UFA Primer: PR/WR Gunner Olszewski

Gunner Olszewski, Punt Returner/Wide Receiver

Height: 6-feet-0
Weight: 190 lbs.
Age: 27
NFL Exp.: 5 Years
College: Bemidji State

The New York Giants’ search for a solid punt returner has been the epitome of a rinse-and-repeat operation over the past several seasons. Then, the team signed Gunner Olszewski off the open market during the 2023 season and saw a welcomed reverse trend to their once-consistent special teams problem.

Having made the NFL from the Division II level, Olszewski joined the Giants from the practice squad on October 23, 2023. He was signed for the upcoming game that week and became the team's official punt returner for the rest of the regular season.

Before that, Olszewski was a member of the New England Patriots (2019-2021) and Pittsburgh Steelers (2022), mainly as a return guy for both kickoffs and punts but also earning a sprinkle of wide receiving opportunities. His production was heavier for the former franchise, where he had two consecutive seasons of 300+ punt return yards and 400+ kickoff return yards and added a couple of touchdowns along the way.

On the collegiate level at Bemidji State in Minnesota, Olszewski played primarily as a cornerback and earned NSIC conference Newcomer of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awards in 2015 and 2018. However, he made a name for himself as the school’s punt returner, and it helped him get a few post-draft workouts and an eventual three-year deal with the Patriots in 2019.

Olszewski would make seven catches for 127 yards and a touchdown in his three stints with New England and be fairly efficient, with an average catch between 12.4 and 17.0 yards. The 27-year-old's greater impact came in his 86 punt returns for 834 yards and a touchdown, accompanied by 36 kickoff runs for an identical 834 yards in two seasons.

After being named a First-team All-Pro and becoming the NFL punt returns leader in 2020, Olszewski moved on to Pittsburgh and made six catches for 53 yards and eight carries for 39 yards in his limiting offensive work in 16 games. He also returned nine punts for 63 yards and five kickoffs for 70 yards and became the first player since Troy Brown in 2000 to record three punt returns of 20+ yards in a single game.

2023 Recap

Compared to his other NFL stops, practically all of Olszewski’s work with the Giants last season came as the featured punt returner from Weeks 8 through 18.

While he could record one catch that didn’t gain any yardage, Olszewski had 23 punt returns in 10 games that covered 273 yards and one touchdown for an average of 11,8 yards per return. His longest return came in Week 17 against the Los Angeles Rams when he went 94 yards to the house for a touchdown that nearly helped the Giants upset their conference foe.

The former D-II product finished the season as the Giants leading returner among seven players who recorded at least one return on either kickoffs or punts. He was one of only two players to collect over 100 yards of returns, the second being wide receiver Parris Campbell, who had eight kickoff returns for 191 yards and a 23.9 average.

Per ESPN’s leaderboards, Olszewsk’s punt return numbers also ranked among the top 15 in the NFL, which saw a handful of names surpass 300+ return yardage. The line of 273 yards was also in the same tier among the NFC conference, meaning the Giants might finally have a piece to compete with at least half of the entire league.

MORE UFA PRIMERS

WR Parris Campbell | QB Tyrod Taylor | CB Adoree Jackson | OLB Jihad Ward | Isaiah Simmons | DT A'Shawn Robinson | RB Matt Breida | S Xavier McKinney | OT Matt Peart | LS Casey Kreiter | IOL Ben Bredeson | IOL Shane Lemieux

Why the Giants Should Re-sign Him

The simplest reason why Olszewski needs to be back with the Giants next season is that he makes their special team's product better. He helped take the punt return team to a stat line that they had not surpassed in the previous five years.

Despite New York's ranking 29th in the league for overall special teams performance (kick and punt return stats), Olszewski’s contributions to the punt return group led them to finish the 2023 regular season in the middle of the pack with 311 punt return yards. His lone touchdown made the Giants one of the eight teams to take a punt back to the other endzone and gave the team its first since 2015.

In the previous five seasons, the Giants had not collected more than 274 yards in the punt return game, a feat they accomplished in the 2019 season. Before Olszewski, they did not have a player return more than 200 yards on punts since Dwayne Harris returned 34 attempts for 341 yards in the 2015 season to accompany his 631 yards on the kickoff return game.

Even beyond that, Olszewski provides the Giants’ special teams with a good set of intangibles that derive from his wide receiver background and benefit the outcomes of those snaps. For starters, he does a solid job seeking out the football and securing it cleanly, and he isn’t afraid to pull out the fair catch signal to ensure a difficult punt can be made in traffic.

Using his shiftiness, speed, and open field vision, Olszewski can find the open spaces and shift his direction to make a defender miss, earn extra yardage, or pursue the other side of the field for a potential breakaway return. That was seen no better than in Week 17 against Los Angeles when he kicked back to the right side and took the punt return 94 yards to the score to give the Giants life in a game they closely lost.

Olszewski was a successful punt returner in New England, saw some hiccups in Pittsburgh, and is now giving something back to the Giants special teams it hasn’t had in a while. More efficient returning leads to better offensive field position, which will be key for next season.

Why the Giants Shouldn’t Re-sign Him

The Giants handed Olszewski a one-year deal worth about $1.01 million when they signed him off the practice squad in October, an agreement that had about $600,000 in cap hit should they have released him before the end of the season.

His previous contracts with New England and Pittsburgh were slightly higher than that per year. With a player that’s rallied over 2,000 return yards in a short five years, he could see a return on investment from other teams that are willing to dish out more for a qualified special teams weapon.

There is no guarantee the Giants will be open to competing with other franchises for Olszewski when punt returners are seemingly a dime a dozen throughout the NFL. However, the key will be to recognize that he has been a more proficient returner than several previous candidates. Does New York want to start over from square one in finding their lead guy in 2024?

Keep or Move On?

Based on what he could do with a 10-game tryout, the Giants would be wise to bring back Olszewski and at least give the incoming special teams coordinator one proven player to work with as he develops his units for the 2024 season.

With Olszewski sitting back for punts, the Giants need better blocking on the front lines, and then they could see better results overall. He brings a handful of intangibles that make for a good punt returner and creates average to strong returns by fighting for the extra inches that will matter to the offense over a long season.

Thinking back, it’s been almost nine seasons since the Giants last had some respectability on special teams, and the woes have been one factor in the franchise’s failures in that time. Bring back Olszewski, and New York could finally flip the script.