EAGAN, Minn. — A smile spread so far across his face you couldn't see anything else.
He attempts to sum up the past half-year of his life. Actually, he interjects, the roller coaster is much longer than that. Agents wanted to represent him and then got cold feet, doubting his NFL prospects.
"Almost everybody turned their back," he shared.
Now, Myles Price's grin swallows his earlobes, and he laughs. It sounds like a myriad of emotions – blissful, nonchalant and blown away all at once. Then, the first word in mind, two drawn-out syllables:
He sighs and shouts, "CRAA-ZZY!"
"It's a surreal feeling," said Price, a Dallas, Texas native, after a recent practice. "To know that I'm doing everything that I said I was going to do, makes me feel good."
"All my life I knew," he added. "I knew I was going to the NFL. I knew it. I was 3-4 years old saying I was going to the NFL. There's a story my mom would tell. I was probably 6 or 7. We just won a game. I probably had six touchdowns or something, and I got in the car crying literal tears saying, 'I don't want the Cowboys to draft me!' My mom, my sister, all my siblings in the car. Always knew I'd get to this level."
As a matter of fact, no one drafted Price. But the Vikings extended a chance to him that he's run and run and run with in the literal sense.
And he's still going, doing what every excellent returner does: "When you hit it, you've got to trust it," he said.
Zooming into history
Enter four words – "Myles Price college highlights" – in the Google search bar and an almost 10-minute-long YouTube reel is one of the first results. The video is a compilation of end arounds, catches via screens and swing passes, and receptions of many distances featuring Price dodging, ducking, dipping (by), diving (past) and, yup, dodging tackle attempts in a manner that suggests he is allergic to the grass.
"Fresh-cut grass!" Price quipped. "I sneeze really badly. I have bad allergies."
It's a fun watch of an incredibly fun player who was neglected in the draft but has emerged as a tremendous asset to Minnesota's special teams this season. Price is one of three NFL players through Week 11 with at least 15 punt and 20 kick returns, joining All-Pro returner Devin Duvernay of the Bears, who overshadowed Price's single-game high 172 return yards against Chicago on Sunday by taking a kickoff to the Vikings 40 with 50 seconds left in the 19-17 loss, and Skyy Moore, a 2022 second-round pick and two-time Super Bowl winner with the Chiefs who is specializing as a returner for San Francisco.
Price also is one of two in the past 15 seasons (with Titans fourth-round rookie WR Chimere Dike) to produce 1,200 or more return yards over his first 10 career games. Dike barely beat Price, 1,303 to 1,252.
Only 12 players in history, including Price, have reached that benchmark. Several weeks ago, the undrafted Vikings rookie became the 21st all-time to eclipse 900 return yards through a player's initial eight games, following the likes of five-time Pro Bowler Steve Smith, Sr., legendary return specialist Darren Sproles, a.k.a. the "Lightning Bug," and shifty two-time Super Bowl Champion Danny Amendola.
Ironically, the very first player to do it was Jimmy Edwards, who played a single NFL season in 1979 with the Vikings and did it that year. Price posted 922 yards in his eight, squeezing past Edwards' mark of 919.
Edwards broke into the NFL after three prolific seasons for the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats and he bounced back across the Canadian border for another two on different squads in the early '80s. A case of fumble-itis (10 fumbles in 14 games) ultimately detracted from Edwards' prowess in the return phase, but he was essential to some Vikings wins, including one Oct. 21, 1979, against Da Bears and Walter Payton. Trailing by 10 in the fourth quarter at Metropolitan Stadium, Edwards hightailed 56 yards on a kickoff. Five plays later, Tommy Kramer hit Rickey Young for a TD, and the Vikings pedaled onward to a 30-27 win.
Fast-forwarding 46 years, Price similarly impacted the division (now the NFC North not the NFC Central).
On his first touch in Week 9 at Detroit, the stocky 5-foot-9, 183-pound receiver, whose strongly developed lower half and tackle-breaking antics more so mirrors a running back, shifted into gear to his left and then cut a couple times to the middle, spotted a crease, slipped a tackle and slammed the gas.
Price dashed 61 yards on the kickoff return, an ideal answer to a Lions TD that hushed the crowd for J.J. McCarthy, who found Justin Jefferson for six points five plays later, and foreshadowed Price's giant game.
When the dust cleared and Minnesota won in the Lions Den for the first time since Jan. 3, 2021, footprints from Price were everywhere. He contributed 164 yards via five kick returns, averaging 32.8, and added 7 yards off a punt (he fair-caught two more). His 171 total return yards represented the most in a game by a Vikings player since Kene Nwangwu recorded exactly that many in Week 12 of 2021.
Price's electric eighth career outing, which also involved a 99-yard touchdown on a kickoff in the final seconds of the third quarter that was nullified by a debatable holding call, went down as the 25th instance in the franchise's record books of a player assembling 170 or more return yards in a game. So you know, Percy Harvin has the most such performances for the Purple with three. Edwards, Qadry Ismail, David Palmer, Cordarrelle Patterson, Eddie Payton (Walter's brother) and Troy Walters tallied two.
By outdoing himself by a yard in Week 11, Price is closing in on Harvin, who didn't field a punt in eight seasons but returned 114 kickoffs across 54 games spanning four Vikings campaigns (2009-12). Price currently leads the NFL with 25 punt returns (10.7 avg.) and ranks second with 38 kickoff returns (25.9).
Not bad for someone who couldn't even score an invite to the NFL Scouting Combine, right?
Price met all the prerequisites – speed that pops, strength that defies his frame, contact balance that causes double takes and a love for the game that runneth over – except, confusingly, he was perceived as lacking positional value in the pros. But what about the production? And the talent so obvious it hurts?
Price reflected on his exclusion as a "terrible, terrible feeling."
"It sucked. But I just kept on fighting, kept on believing, trusting in God because it wasn't easy at all," he said with a smile symbolizing his persistence. "I feel like I had one of the hardest journeys to the league."
Can't-miss fearlessness
Price is one of 22 FBS players to amass the following in their college careers since 1977: 2,000-plus receiving yards, 200-plus rushing yards and 500-plus punt return yards. (Note: That's as far back as Stathead has tracked college ST data). Price logged 2,217 receiving, 270 rushing and 585 punt returning in 55 games (42 at Texas Tech and 13 at Indiana). Recent popular NFL players with equally comprehensive college careers are T.Y. Hilton (50 games), Wes Welker (50) and Jeremy Maclin (28). It's not common for someone to be so effective in different functions, but Price is an uncommon person.
Offensive Coordinator Wes Phillips said "he has an extreme confidence" and compared the small but mighty receiver to a running back because of his physicality and the No. 31 jersey he wore until switching to 4 (the jersey number he sported on the Hoosiers in '24) after Rondale Moore's injury in the preseason.
"You love the guys, sometimes, that – they almost just don't know how big the situation that they're in is," Phillips reflected recently. "To be a rookie returner, where all of us may have been a little bit tight just going into [his debut on Monday Night Football at Chicago], like, 'Hey, we've seen good things, but the lights are really on now, you know, this is the real deal.' And he hasn't flinched. He hasn't changed a bit from day one, with that confidence that he has in himself and his abilities. So, you know, obviously making plays [as a returner and] it excites you about what his future might be able to be as a receiver."
Special Teams Coordinator Matt Daniels expressed that Price, whom teammates lovingly call "Jug" because of the way his head is shaped, was rated by the Vikings as a Top 5 punt returner in the pre-draft process, but didn't know returning kickoffs was in his wheelhouse until he busted loose in an exhibition versus New England, because he only had three runbacks in college and none since his freshman year.
"This is a nuanced form [of kickoffs]. This is something he's never really truly done. And so what you're seeing, the trajectory of Myles Price is that he's just continuing to get better – a better feel, better vision for understanding how to set [up returns], the tempo that he has to have," Daniels said. "I am not shocked [by] where he's at now, or where he is headed, because all the attributes – the ability to break tackles, the vision and seeing and setting up blocks – all of that has already been there, and it's in him."
Price, of course, isn't perfect. He's 23 and working a job that can "get really lonely out there when you put one on the ground and it goes the wrong way for you," Daniels offered. "And so it's on us as an organization to really wrap our hands around this guy just to ensure that we got his back. And we do."
In the locker room after Minnesota's 27-19 loss to Baltimore in Week 10, which nosedived around the same time Price coughed up the ball on consecutive kickoff returns and lost one that led to a Ravens TD, Daniels shared that Head Coach Kevin O'Connell singled out 'Jug' in his postgame address to the team.
"I think that was a really unique moment that really needed to be had. I'm really glad that K.O. did that just to nip anything in the bud … just to kind of [kill] that entire situation," Daniels said before disclosing the nature of some of his text messages with Price later that evening. "[He was] highly upset with himself. But at the same time, he's telling himself – he's like, 'I'm built like that,' like, 'I'm still that guy.'
"So the supreme confidence is still there for him," Daniels assured.
Because Minnesota drafted its fewest players this past spring (five) since a five-man class in 2009, a franchise record, it was important to unearth and add quality UDFAs. Price is well beyond that, already.
He cracked the Top 15 against Baltimore on Minnesota's leaderboard for punt/kick return yardage in a season and moved into 6th place Sunday against Chicago. Tied for second in the NFL with six punt returns of 15-plus yards, the most in a season by a Viking since Marcus Sherels had seven in 2018, Price is sprinting to the all-time club mark of 1,465 return yards, set 27 years ago by Palmer via 78 returns (28 punts, 50 kickoffs). Price will break it with 214 and is riding a 17-game pace of 104 opps and 2,128 yards.
Inspired by the all-time leader for PR TDs in a career, Devin Hester (14), as well as DeSean Jackson, a prolific punt returner and vertical threat on offense, Price said "you got to be fearless" in his position.
Although the changing of NFL kickoff rules diminishes some of the significance of Price's numbers, it's a waste of time to fuss over them. Because the more things change, the more they stay the same. Great returners possess the same great tracking and agility, decisiveness and creativity. Price has adjusted to a dynamic kickoff that allows players to sneak through the back door "a lot quicker than you were able to in the old format." It may be suited best for a player with punt return chops, catering to his background.
"I knew when I got up here I would make the most of every opportunity," Price said. "I didn't know when it was going to be. I didn't know if it was going to be this year. I just knew at some point I was going to get an opportunity, and when I [did], my goal was to never give the job back. And that's what I'm doing."
He's been an absolute revelation so far as Minnesota's must-see return man.
