Field Gulls
What a difference a year makes.
The Seattle Seahawks didn’t have a bad special teams unit last season under coordinator Jay Harbaugh; they even ranked 10th by FTN’s DVOA. But it was an often ruinous group with return specialists who were so game-damaging bad that they were let go in the same week after combining for two lost fumbles. Their loss to the New York Giants involved a would-be game-tying field goal resulting in a blocked kick and a touchdown. Jason Myers and Michael Dickson were doing heavy lifting for the special teams, and Harbaugh was easily the one Seahawks assistant under a microscope heading into 2025 season.
The 2025 Seahawks are not just great on special teams, they’re historically great. Just let Aaron Schatz of FTN Fantasy tell you about it.
Speaking of the Seahawks and the Jets as well, both of those teams now rank among the best special teams units we’ve ever tracked. The Jets’ special teams DVOA is particularly crazy considering just how bad they are on offense and defense (30th in both).
Seattle’s 2025 ST DVOA is 10th best dating back to 1978, while the Jets are 4th and at least have something positive to talk about this season.
There isn’t a single subcategory (kickoffs, kick returns, punts, punt returns, and field goals/extra points) in which the Seahawks are on the negative side of the DVOA metric. Their biggest strength is kickoff coverage, ranking No. 1 overall by miles over the second-placed Washington Commanders (whose ST coordinator is Harbaugh’s predecessor in Seattle, Larry Izzo). Seahawks opponents average the worst starting field position off of kickoffs, which is a credit to both Pro Bowl snub Jason Myers and the return coverage team.
Whether in close wins or blowouts, Seattle’s special teams has repeatedly generated big plays after spending too much of last season giving them up.
The Seahawks had just taken a slender 17-14 lead over the Pittsburgh Steelers early in the fourth quarter. Rookie returner Kaleb Johnson let the ball bypass him, and it stayed in the field of play for Holani to recover and score a critical touchdown. Kicking teams cannot advance recovered kickoffs unless it’s a fumble, but if it’s in the end zone then it’s fair game. Pittsburgh never had an opportunity to tie or take the lead on an offensive possession after this score.
Not that the Seahawks needed a lot of help from their ST given how poorly the Saints played, but it’s never a bad thing when you can break a game open in the first quarter with a franchise record 95-yard punt return touchdown, followed by a blocked punt setting up another score.
Myers did play a role in this game even coming down to a last-second field goal when he missed a kick that would’ve made it...
