Kansas City, Mo ? Rubbery-legged Dante Hall loves to shimmy and shake, stop, start, spin and dart.

Kansas City’s pint-sized return specialist owns so many moves, fans are calling him the Artful Dodger.

“An inspirational kid” is what Dick Vermeil calls the charismatic 5-foot-8 Texan.

He already has an end zone-to-end zone kickoff return for one touchdown and a 73-yard punt return for another this season, and has been selected the top AFC special teams player each of the past two weeks.

Elusive and seemingly fearless, Hall leads the AFC with 158 yards in punt returns and tops the NFL in both punt-return average (19.8) and kickoff-return average (33.6).

“It’s all instinct,” he said with a big smile. “Once I catch the ball, I just let my God-given talents and ability take over.”

A backup wide receiver, he’s also been made a bigger part of the offense for the Chiefs, who’ll be going for the second 4-0 start in team history Sunday in Baltimore. Besides his 427 return yards, he’s rushed eight times for 70 yards and caught six passes for 59.

Still, it will be tough topping his breakthrough season of last year. Leaving camp with only a precarious hold on a roster spot, but with the unwavering support of Vermeil, he quickly disproved critics.

He had an 88-yard kickoff return and punt runbacks of 95 and 86 yards, setting a team record with 1,353 yards on 57 kickoff returns.

Leaving would-be tacklers strewn on the field, he became just the 21st man in NFL history to score on a punt and a kickoff return in the same game. Hall also scored on a 75-yard pass play as the Chiefs set a team record for total yards.

But one play in particular stamped him with stardom: a touchdown on a 49-yard catch-and-run against Denver.

“I look at the game film and I think, ‘Wow!’ A lot of times I’ve found myself in shock watching my own self. I guarantee you, you ask any person who has a great move, if he tells you he did it on purpose, he’s lying. You just do it. It just comes.”

If anybody can appreciate how dangerous Hall is, it’s a guy who punts for a living.

“Can you imagine what coaches are saying to their special teams the week they play us?” Chiefs punter Jason Baker said. “First of all, they haven’t slept. They’re saying, ‘Don’t give this guy a chance. We’ve got to do this, we’ve got to do that. Hey, punter, get your job done.’

“I bet a lot of people will eventually start punting the ball out of bounds. Dante can change the way a kicker approaches the entire game.”