Late in the fourth quarter of the 2011 season opener against the Seattle Seahawks, Ginn returned a kickoff for 102 yards and a punt for 55 yards for two touchdowns within 59 seconds for a game total of 268 return yards. For that accomplishment, he earned NFL Special Teams Player of the Week for Week 1. Earlier that week, Ginn had accepted a salary cut from $2.2 million per season to $1 million. An injury late in the season forced the Niners to replace him on kick returns with Kyle Williams, whose mistakes during the NFC Championship Game are widely thought by fans to have cost the 49ers their chance at appearing in Super Bowl XLVI.