Amon-Ra St. Brown returned punts against the Colts, but he shouldn't do so again

After Kalif Raymond went down with a foot injury against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, the Detroit Lions turned to star wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown to return punts for the rest of the game. There's inherent risk and clear trepidation to use a key piece of the offense in such duties, with extra injury exposure.

During his Tuesday morning appearance on 97.1 The Ticket, head coach Dan Campbell started with the most obvious reason why St. Brown was called upon to return punts against Indianapolis.

"Well, you know why Saint was in there? It's because Leaf got hurt," Campbell said.

Dan Campbell confirms the obvious about Amon-Ra St. Brown as a punt returner

Campbell continued, and all but confirmed St. Brown won't be the Lions' primary punt returner sans Raymond anytime soon-if ever again.

"So now that we're in another week, we're gonna have probably a different returner", Campbell said. "And if we need Saint in a critical then we'll use him. But that was really why he was in there, because he's sure-handed and we know he'll get the job done. And he's just so damn reliable. If he wasn't that reliable, maybe we wouldn't have put him back there."

With the short week before the Thanksgiving game, St. Brown was listed with a knee injury on Monday's estimated practice report. It appears he was injured while returning a punt against the Colts, proving the apprehension about having him fill that role (even briefly for the rest of a game) to be well-founded.

The in-game backup punt returner plan in case of an Raymond injury might need to be tweaked to bump St. Brown down the pecking order, unless it's a big spot that warrants using him. Campbell hinted at just that, and the idea should go well beyond this week.

In terms of other punt returner options for Thanksgiving Day against the Chicago Bears, as it looks like Raymond will be out, rookie running backs Sione Vaki and veteran running back Craig Reynolds got reps there during training camp. Cornerback Khalil Dorsey has return experience from college and in the NFL, but that has been mostly on kickoffs, not punts.