DEARBORN -- Golden Tate said upon his signing that he would like to compete with Jeremy Ross for the Detroit Lions' punt return job.

But it appears that battle has concluded before it ever really began.

When asked if he was still being considered for the job, Tate said, "I'm going to do whatever I can do to help this team. We have a really good punt returner now in Jeremy Ross, and I have a lot of confidence in him.

"If they need me, I'll be there. But he's the punt returner. He's a tremendous punt returner."

Translation: Tate is open to anything Detroit asks of him. But he's not anticipating being asked to return punts.

He was terrific last year -- No. 1 in the NFL, in fact, according to ProFootballFocus. He averaged 11.5 yards per return, which ranked ninth overall.

But Ross was surprisingly good in his own right.

He was cut by the Packers early in the season and originally signed with Detroit's practice squad on Oct. 8. He was promoted to the active roster later that month to replace the ineffective Micheal Spurlock on return teams.

And he was spectacular, averaging 16.2 yards per punt return in the season's final 10 games. That would have led the NFL if he had enough returns to qualify.

Ross housed a 58-yarder against Philadelphia, and also returned a kick for a score in that game.

He averaged 29.3 yards per kick return, matter of fact, which would have ranked fourth in the league with enough attempts to qualify. And his job appears to be safe there, too.

Reggie Bush probably would pose the biggest challenge, but the 29-year-old has no plans to be considered for the job.

"As of right now, no," Bush said. "And hopefully, no. I'd like to think I graduated from returning kicks and punts."

Ross, it seems, will continue to be the guy on kick and punt returns. Now he'll have to prove that his big 10-game stretch in Detroit was not an aberration.

He insists it was not -- and went so far as to suggest Detroit could feature the NFL's best return games this year, now that he's had time to actually learn the blocking schemes and can anticipate where lanes will open.

"I think we're going to go out there and do damage to people," Ross said. "Our plan is to be one of the best special teams units -- the best special teams unit -- in the National Football League. I think we can do that."

Seriously? The best?

"Yeah, definitely," he said. "I look at the group of guys we got, we got some monsters. Know what I'm saying? We got people that want to be here and know how to work. I think when you combine those two things, the formula is success."