Football position with fewest (nonzero) touchdowns

Some players in American football never touch the ball (except maybe to fall on a fumble).

I’m sure many positions have never had a player score a touchdown. I’m looking for a position that has scored the fewest touchdowns, but at least one. I’m guessing it was a freak fumble or trick play situation. My google-fu could not find it

Thanks,

Brian

I pretty sure every position has had someone score a touchdown, except for maybe the long snapper. It’s probably the most rare for any offensive lineman.

It looks like Jeff Saturday, a center, scored a touchdown in 2006. I can find a record of any other NFL center scoring a touchdown.

Besides the Long Snapper maybe a Kick Off Specialist would never score. That position is only for kickoffs, so he doesn’t have the opportunities a regular Place Kicker would near the goal line.

Punters are rarely in the game when the ball is anywhere near the goal line, but some Punter may have grabbed a blocked punt or carried one in from a fake. If you count passing for a touchdown as scoring then some Punter may have done that.

A kicker has scored a touchdown on his own kickoff, but I’ve only ever heard of the one occurrence.

I wasn’t considering college ball before just the pros. Opening up that huge number of additional games going back over a century it’s unlikely that any traditional position has never scored a touchdown. Because of other blocked kicks, fumbles, and trick plays place kickers must have scored quite a few TDs on field goal attempts near the goal line.

My guess is the lowest on a designed play is either the left or right tackle. Tackle eligibles score every once in a while but I ccan’t think of anything else that would score less often.

How many guards have scored on fumblrooskis?

If we’re just talking strictly positions… surely Punter, Kicker or Long Snapper have got to be the lead. Their positions are just awkwardly poised for getting a touchdown… especially punters and kickers who are less athletic then their teammates and will pretty much stay out of the play and serve as a last minute hail mary at stopping a return; so they’re infinitely less likely to pounce on a fumble if only because they’re not likely to be near it when it happens.

If you’re talking about players on the field during not special teams time… you’re definitely going to be looking at D and O-Linemen. All the other positions it isn’t too unusual. Even then… you have Tackle Eligible plays where OT’s get TD’s; and defensive ends are more known for getting at a quarterback so more likely to b eable to grab a fumble and take it home.

So, I’d say you’re looking at interior linemen. Guards, Centers and Defensive Tackles. Which is the winner? Your guess is as good as mine.

Probably someone in an Eagles jersey.

(d/r)

Defensive linemen – even defensive tackles – score not infrequently on fumble recoveries and even interceptions. Here’s Packer nose tackle B.J. Raji returning an interception for a touchdown against the Bears in the NFC Championship Game a few years back. (To be 100% fair, he had actually dropped back in coverage on that particular play…but he’s still a NT on the roster.)

For a defender, more often than not, if they get their hands on a ball, they’re likely to try to get yardage, and even score. For offensive linemen, coaches are probably training them to focus on possession, and so, I would imagine that they are supposed to just drop on the ball if they recover a fumble (not that some might not try to advance it).

My money for fewest TDs would be long snapper, both because of the infrequency with which they’re on the field, and the nature of their role.

I once saw a long-snapper come oh-so-close to scoring a touchdown. Bears FG snapper Jerry Fontenot lined up as an eligible receiver in a “swinging gate” formation in 1994, and the holder threw him a pass. Unfortunately he juggled it . . . so tight end Keith Jennings caught it and scored instead. Boring.

In addition, there is the simple fact that the offense doesn’t have anybody behind the quarterback. When there is a fumble in the backfield, or especially when a fumble results from a quarterback sack, the defense will often recover with a path to the end zone so clear that even a slow-footed defensive lineman can score.

Whereas the defense lines up in depth, and it’s very, very difficult for an offensive lineman to recover a fumble with a clear path to the goal line.

Fat guy glory: Watch 11 offensive linemen scoring touchdowns. Link

Also, it occurred to me that Danny White was a punter as well, and I wondered if he had ever rushed for a touchdown on a fake punt. Incredibly, someone on the internet had already spent two hours determining that that never happened.

Long Snappers probably have 0 TDs. There aren’t many of them and they’re very unlikely to get their hands back on the ball after the snap. Same thing with the Kick Off Specialist.

I don’t know if any Punter ever scored a TD as a Punter. Online there were references to Punters who scored while playing other positions. I’m pretty sure some punter has thrown the ball for a touchdown. I suppose it might happen on a fumble after the punt if the punter had gone downfield to block he might pick up a loose ball to carry into the endzone.

Not sure about the NFL, but it has happened in college. Ryan Erxleben ran for a touchdown on a fake punt for Texas Tech in 2013.

There was also the infamous case in 2011 where the LSU punter was about to score a TD, but ran afoul of then-new NCAA rule that penalized from the spot of the foul for strutting into the end zone.

It happened just last year (NFC Championship).

I witnessed a play about 35 years ago where placekicker Efren Herrera caught a pass for a TD on a faked kick.

I’m not saying any of those positions have NEVER scored.

Just, as per the rules set forth by the OP… position wise- Kicker, Punter and Long Snapper have probably scored the LEAST of any position. And Interior Linemen have probably scored the least amongst standard non-special-team positions. I understand that Guards, Centers, DT’s Kickers, Punters and Long Snappers all have probably had a player that scored a TD. But, to the OP’s question… which position has the least? I don’t know, but its got to be one of those I would guess.

Agreed; my point was that, for some good reasons, of that group, DTs are probably the most likely to score a TD. My money is still on long snapper for the least.

Place kicker and kickoff specialist are really two different things that are often performed by different people (more so in college than pro). While I agree that the role of place kicker has likely scored many touchdowns, the link I provided was a kickoff specialist scoring on a kickoff, which I can find no other example of.