Field Gulls
You’ll hear about Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp and Sam Darnold this week. You’ll hear about Kenneth Walker III, and Tory Horton and possibly Elijah Arroyo as well.
But George Holani had himself a career day on Sunday to help the Seattle Seahawks defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers on the road. He’s also the current face of a Seattle special teams unit that has been an underrated hero through these two early weeks.
First, he’s become the primary returner on kickoffs. Holani was the only Seahawks to take the ball out on kickoffs against the Steelers.
And as a unit, they came out ahead on returns. Here’s the breakdown of starting field position:
There have been so many rule changes to the kickoff, it’s easy to miss how and why these are significant. The touchback now is placed at the 35-yard line, a ridiculous amount of change from the 20-yard line a few short years ago. Teams are now overwhelmingly hitting the landing zone to force a return, because the chances of tackling the returner before the 35 are so high. This is what the NFL wants.
Jason Myers did kick one touchback, but it was intentional in the late-stage with the lead, when time was in favor of the Seahawks.
From this game, Seattle’s average starting position was the 30, and Pittsburgh the 25. It may not seem like much, but that five yards each drive quickly adds up.
But wait – there’s more!
Not only did Holani return every kick on Sunday, but that was him in the end zone for the early frontrunner of wildest special teams play of the season!
Watch that again – look at Holani literally never break stride full-speed to the end zone en route to the massive momentum swing in this game. Just one of the smoothest 48-yard dashes you’ll ever see.
Let’s not forget Week 1 because this isn’t the only big ‘Teams’ play of the season, either. Julian Love blocked the second field goal attempted against the Seahawks last Sunday.
I recognize that Myers did miss a field goal today, but he immediately made the follow-up. A 54-yarder at that, which is nothing to sneeze at. It’s a been a nice reprieve from the alternating good Myers/bad Myers year-over-year pattern, and I don’t sense this as the return. He’s made all five extra points, and has been reliable lately.
Strange to look back and think that just a year ago, the Seahawks were forced to cut both primary kick and punt returners due to a laughable amount of dropped balls.
This year, special teams...
