Vikings returner Myles Price was ‘born to play football’ but had to learn how to catch one

It was between 1:30 and 2:00 in the morning, less than 12 hours before the Vikings would save their season, at least temporarily, with an upset no one outside the walls of their purple fortress saw coming at Ford Field in Detroit last week.

“I couldn’t sleep,” said Myles Price, the undrafted 23-year-old rookie returner. “And I always sleep the night before a game.”

Price had a weird feeling. In a good way. He sat there in the team hotel picturing how he would impact the game and score a touchdown, which, by the way, is exactly what this infectiously positive 5-foot-9, 183-pounder had been telling teammates and coaches he’d do all week.

“And I did,” he said, “but I didn’t.”

For the seventh time this season, the league’s most penalized special teams unit negated a kickoff return by its beloved “Jug” — a nickname bestowed on Price by his fellow receivers because, as special teams coordinator Matt Daniels revealed, “His head looks like a jug.”

A 99-yard touchdown disappeared. Gone. Just like previous returns for 54, 46, 42 and 37 yards. But seven kickoff return penalties for 327 lost yards and, oh yeah, three more penalties on Price’s punt return unit will not break this sturdy little Jug.

“I will take one to the crib,” Price said. “I know it. My guys know it, which is why they’re straining so hard to block for me. I will keep speaking this into existence!”

“That crowd was crazy,” said veteran linebacker and special teamer Eric Wilson. “But we answer right back with a touchdown because Jug is a beast. It changed that game.”

Whether it helped change the season will start to unfold Sunday when the Vikings (4-4) play host to the Ravens (3-5) and quarterback Lamar Jackson, who owns a 24-3 career record against NFC teams.

The Vikings earmarked Price in the spring as a top-five punt returner they likely could sign as a rookie free agent out of Indiana, where he averaged 12.6 yards per return last year after four seasons of averaging 15.6 at Texas Tech.

Price, meanwhile, had his eyes fixed on the Vikings. They’ve had the NFL’s worst punt return unit twice in the past five years and haven’t reached the end zone on a punt return since Marcus Sherels scored the last of his five career touchdowns on Oct. 9, 2016.

As far as kick returner, well, Price possessed most of the skills necessary to succeed, at least in pee-wee flag ball, Pop Warner and at The Colony High School just north of Dallas.

Kenny Perry, the special teams coach at Texas Tech, said Price became a skilled catcher of punts, but laughed when asked to describe him catching kickoffs.

“Like a wolverine on crack,” Perry said. “Over his head. Off the side of his helmet. Going 100 miles per hour, all over the place.”

Price had only three kick returns in college. All as a freshman.

“My first two times, I muffed it, picked it up, ran and fumbled again,” Price said.

Perry gave up.

Five years later? Price ranks third in the NFL in kick return yards (739) and 17^th in average (26.4). Without those seven penalties, his average would be 30.5, third-best.

As a punt returner, he’s averaging 9.6 yards, 13th in the NFL and the best by a Viking since Sherels averaged 12.0 in 2018.

It’s not that Price couldn’t catch anything. In fact, the kid who grew up as a running back, and still looks like one, became a receiver with intriguing NFL slot potential because he learned how to catch passes.

Most of it was hard work. Part of it was being put in some particularly creative pressure situations by a father, Ken Price, who anticipated NFL potential and kept feeding a young boy who ate, slept and breathed football.

There was a picture window in the Price house. Myles was positioned smack dab in front of it. Ken would fire footballs from the other side of the room while saying, “Myles, if that ball breaks my window, I’ll break your …”

The pee-wee flag leagues in Dallas start at four years of age. Price was being sneaked onto the field for a team called the Cowboys when he was three.

“I was a foot tall,” Price said.

At age seven, Price joined the Redbird Raiders, a Pop Warner team coached by Ken Ewing. The two still talk often.

“Coach Ken” is a character, a coach at heart and a guy who wasn’t afraid to pass along to Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell, “You tell K.O. to put Myles at slot receiver and he won’t regret it because I promise you everything Justin Jefferson is doing, Myles is soaking it up and working twice as hard at it as Justin.”

The Redbird Raiders used to have Friday night sleepovers. The rest of the kids would be asleep when Coach Ken would come downstairs and see little Myles watching film at 3 a.m.

And that’s exactly what he did.

“Myles might have been a better cornerback,” Ewing said. “He’s just a coach’s dream. You know how some people are born to be firefighters or doctors? Myles was born to be a football player.”

In high school, Price played receiver, returner and the cornerback position opposite Christian Gonzalez, who was drafted by the Patriots 17th overall this year.

“Those two would argue about who was the best athlete, and it was close,” said Brandon Grady, who coached special teams and cornerbacks at The Colony. “One game, Myles had touchdowns on back-to-back kickoffs against Frisco Wakeland.”

Did he catch the kickoffs?

Even though he returned only three kickoffs in college, Price still worked on catching kickoffs before practice. When he got to the Vikings, he worked with Daniels after practice every day.

“It was a struggle,” said Daniels, but Price finally reached an NFL level of catching competence to go with what Daniels calls a natural, God-given ability to be decisive, quick and somehow “make the first man miss.”

“He does have that,” said Perry, the Texas Tech special teams coach. “You can’t touch him in a phone booth.”

You also can’t arm-tackle him, said Wilson, the 31-year-old Vikings veteran, fellow undrafted player and apparently Price’s blossoming good-luck charm.

“I have noticed that every big return I have, E-Wil has been the guy to break down the huddle before we hit the field,” Price said, looking across the room at Wilson. “Hey, E-Wil, what do you say when you break down the huddle?”

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