Thirteen seconds into Seattle’s divisional playoff against San Francisco, Rashid Shaheed had already changed the game.
The Seahawks returner caught the opening kickoff at his own 5-yard line on January 17, 2026. He spotted a gap, accelerated through the coverage and raced 95 yards into the end zone.
Seattle led 7-0 before quarterback Sam Darnold had thrown a pass. San Francisco’s offense could only watch as Lumen Field erupted.
The Seahawks eventually won 41-6, continuing a postseason run that ended with a Super Bowl LX championship.
Two months earlier, Seattle had acquired Shaheed from New Orleans for fourth- and fifth-round selections in the 2026 NFL Draft. The trade addressed a need for offensive speed, but it also gave Seattle another weapon under the league’s evolving kickoff rules.
Shaheed could change a game’s direction without participating in an offensive snap.
NFL special teams rankings rarely attract the attention given to quarterbacks or defensive efficiency. Yet they reveal advantages that influence scoring opportunities, starting field position and the pressure facing opposing coordinators.
An accurate punt can force an offense to begin near its own goal line. Disciplined coverage might prevent a returner from reaching the 35-yard line, while reliable kicking can rescue possessions that otherwise produce nothing.
Those contributions become particularly valuable when playoff opponents possess comparable talent.
Seattle’s championship season demonstrated their importance. It also raised a question worth exploring: Can exceptional special teams performance help predict postseason success?
Five Yards Changed the NFL Kickoff
For much of the previous decade, NFL kickoffs had become increasingly predictable.
Powerful kickers repeatedly sent the football into the end zone, leaving return specialists with fewer opportunities to influence games. Concerns about high-speed collisions also shaped how the league approached the play.
In 2024, the NFL introduced its dynamic kickoff format, moving most players closer together and restricting movement before the ball was caught.
The league wanted more returns without bringing back the dangerous collisions that had long accompanied the play.
Although the new alignment encouraged additional action, teams still frequently preferred touchbacks. NFL owners responded with another adjustment before the 2025 season.
The league moved touchbacks on kicks reaching the end zone to the receiving team’s 35-yard line rather than the 30.
Five yards changed the calculation.
Kicking teams now faced a choice between conceding favorable starting position and attempting to pin returners deeper with carefully placed kicks.
According to Pro Football Focus’s March 2026 analysis, the kickoff return rate climbed from 34.7% in 2024 to 75.9% in 2025. Returns covering at least 40 yards also increased by 33%.
Coordinators suddenly had more to worry about than the occasional spectacular return.
Coverage players needed sharper assignments because more kicks remained live. Return units experimented with blocking combinations, while kickers varied placement and trajectory to disrupt opposing formations.
One missed assignment could surrender substantial field position.
PFF’s June 2026 examination of starting field position illustrated the stakes. Drives beginning inside an offense’s own 35-yard line produced points 33.64% of the time. Possessions starting at the 35 or beyond scored at a 49.46% rate.
Those figures do not prove that field position alone caused the difference, but they demonstrate how closely starting territory and scoring opportunities are connected.
An offense beginning near midfield needs fewer yards to threaten the scoreboard. Its coordinator can choose from a wider range of plays instead of depending on a long, mistake-free drive.
Defenders face the opposite challenge. One explosive completion can suddenly put an opponent within field-goal range.
The new format has also made historical comparisons trickier.
A returner’s average from 2018 reflects a different environment than one established in 2025. Analysts comparing NFL special teams rankings across those seasons must account for how the rules changed the opportunities available.
What Advanced Metrics Reveal About Hidden Yards
A 15-yard punt return might appear unremarkable beside a 50-yard touchdown pass. Yet those extra yards can make the next offensive possession considerably easier.
Traditional punting statistics rarely tell the entire story.
A booming kick looks impressive in the box score. But if the returner brings it back into favorable territory, much of that distance disappears.
Gross punting average records how far the ball travels. Net average subtracts return yardage and accounts for touchbacks, bringing the measurement closer to the territory a team actually gains.
Neither statistic fully explains the importance of pinning an opponent near its own goal line.
Expected Points Added, or EPA, offers another perspective. Instead of focusing solely on distance, it estimates how much a play changes a team’s expected scoring advantage.
Consider two punts with similar net yardage. One forces an opponent to start near its own end zone, while the other gives the receiving offense a less difficult starting position.
EPA can distinguish their situational value, recognizing that field position matters differently depending on where the next possession begins.
Johnny Hekker demonstrated that distinction during the Los Angeles Rams’ 24-10 victory over Chicago in October 2020.
All five of his punts landed at or inside the Bears’ 10-yard line. Chicago repeatedly faced long fields, while Los Angeles controlled territory without asking its offense to gain additional yards.
According to the Rams’ official account, Hekker’s first four punts helped create defensive situations that eventually led to four scoring drives.
The performance earned him NFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors. More importantly, he forced Chicago to work from uncomfortable positions throughout the evening.
The NFL had witnessed more dramatic examples long before analysts developed today’s tools.
In October 2006, the Bears recovered from a 23-3 deficit against Arizona despite scoring only three offensive points. Two defensive touchdowns kept Chicago alive before Devin Hester’s 83-yard punt return secured a 24-23 victory.
Four years later, the San Diego Chargers experienced the opposite extreme. They led the league in offensive and defensive yardage but finished 9-7 and missed the playoffs after repeated special teams breakdowns, including five blocked punts and four return touchdowns allowed.
Those seasons showed how football’s third phase could influence outcomes. Modern analytics help measure those contributions across an entire schedule.
Aaron Schatz developed Defense-adjusted Value Over Average, commonly known as DVOA, to measure performance against league expectations while accounting for situational and opponent-related factors.
Its special teams component evaluates kicking, punting, returns and coverage instead of judging teams solely by conventional yardage totals.
That approach exposes differences ordinary averages can conceal.
One return unit might regularly improve its offense’s starting position by several yards. Another could rely on a handful of spectacular returns while delivering little advantage on most other opportunities.
Both might produce respectable yardage totals. Their week-to-week value, however, would tell different stories.
DVOA helps analysts identify teams that consistently win those smaller exchanges, particularly when the box score offers little evidence of their influence.
For Seattle, those underlying strengths became part of a championship-winning formula.
Seattle Found Multiple Ways to Win
The Seahawks entered the 2025 postseason with one of the strongest statistical profiles in modern NFL history.
Seattle finished 14-3 and earned the NFC’s top seed. Its success extended beyond defensive dominance or occasional offensive brilliance.
According to Aaron Schatz’s final 2025 FTN DVOA ratings, Seattle ranked first overall with a 41.2% DVOA, the seventh-highest mark among teams measured since 1978.
The defense led the NFL, special teams ranked second with an 8.6% DVOA, and the offense finished tenth.
That balance gave Seattle options when conventional scoring drives stalled.
Jason Myers supplied reliable kicking, while Shaheed created immediate scoring opportunities through his return ability.
December offered two revealing examples.
On December 14, Seattle faced Indianapolis and went the entire afternoon without scoring a touchdown.
Normally, that kind of offensive performance would put enormous pressure on a contender. Myers refused to let it decide the result.
He converted six field goals, including a 56-yard winner with 18 seconds remaining, as Seattle escaped with an 18-16 victory.
Indianapolis had briefly taken a 16-15 lead on Blake Grupe’s 60-yard kick with 47 seconds left. Darnold answered with two completions to Shaheed, moving Seattle into position for Myers to deliver.
Every Seahawks point came from their kicker, whose six successful field goals established a franchise single-game record.
Four days later, Shaheed offered a different kind of rescue against the Los Angeles Rams.
Seattle trailed 30-14 in the fourth quarter when he returned a punt 58 yards for a touchdown.
The return immediately reduced the deficit, and a successful two-point conversion brought the Seahawks within eight points. Seattle eventually forced overtime and won 38-37, clinching a playoff berth.
As the Seahawks’ postgame report detailed, Shaheed’s return gave Seattle the momentum it desperately needed.
His touchdown eliminated the need for a lengthy offensive drive at a moment when the clock had become a serious problem.
Darnold and the offense still had to finish the comeback, but Shaheed had changed what looked like an increasingly hopeless situation.
Myers delivered points when drives stalled. Shaheed could erase a deficit without consuming valuable offensive time.
Both would leave their mark on Seattle’s championship run.
Myers’ Record-Setting Super Bowl
Seattle’s February 8, 2026, championship against New England brought the team’s kicking strength into focus again.
The Seahawks’ defense frustrated quarterback Drake Maye, forced three turnovers and held the Patriots scoreless through three quarters.
Seattle’s offense, meanwhile, repeatedly struggled to finish drives.
Myers kept converting.
His first four field goals accounted for every Seahawks point through three quarters, building a 12-0 lead while the defense controlled New England.
A fifth successful kick later established a Super Bowl record.
Seattle won 29-13, with Myers scoring 17 points through five field goals and two extra points.
According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Myers finished the regular season and postseason with 206 combined points, establishing an NFL record.
Kenneth Walker III earned Super Bowl MVP honors after rushing for 135 yards. Seattle’s defense controlled New England for much of the evening, restricting its opportunities and maintaining constant pressure.
Myers made sure the Seahawks collected points even when their offense could not reach the end zone. His accuracy helped turn defensive dominance into a comfortable lead.
Seattle had an elite defense, capable offensive playmakers and reliable coaching. Its special teams unit strengthened all three.
That support matters when judging what the rankings actually mean. An outstanding kicker cannot score without opportunities, and strong coverage only goes so far when the rest of a roster struggles.
New York learned that lesson during the same season.
The Jets Exposed the Limits of Special Teams Rankings
The New York Jets finished ahead of Seattle in special teams DVOA in 2025.
Their 10.2% rating led the NFL, yet they won only three games.
New York’s offense repeatedly struggled to sustain drives, while its defense failed to provide the consistency that made Seattle so difficult to beat.
The Jets had an outstanding unit, but the rest of the roster could not turn its contributions into enough victories.
That contrast reveals a crucial limitation in using NFL special teams rankings to forecast playoff success.
Seattle’s kicking game complemented a dominant defense and a capable offense. New York lacked those foundations, leaving its specialists with fewer opportunities to influence winning outcomes.
Football’s structure helps explain the difference.
Teams run far more offensive and defensive plays than special teams plays. Even when returners, kickers and coverage players perform exceptionally well, their opportunities to affect a result remain limited compared with those of the offense and defense.
Researchers Matthew Ladden and Ethan Seung explored that imbalance in a 2024 Wharton Sports Analytics Journal study.
They examined NFL data from 1999 through 2022, comparing offensive, defensive and special teams performance with winning percentage.
Their Special Teams Performance Index helped measure contributions that traditional statistics often missed.
After adjusting for differences in play volume, the researchers estimated that an individual offensive play had approximately 3.6 times the impact of a special teams play on winning percentage. A defensive play carried roughly 2.6 times the impact.
The findings did not diminish the importance of special teams. They showed why an outstanding kicking game rarely compensates for serious weaknesses elsewhere.
Seattle and New York supplied a clear comparison.
The Seahawks could convert field-position advantages into defensive stops, scoring opportunities and victories. The Jets often failed to build on similar gains because their offense and defense could not consistently support them.
For playoff analysts, the lesson is not to ignore special teams rankings. It is to understand where those rankings become most useful.
When two contenders possess comparable offensive and defensive talent, the kicking game can create the separation neither side finds elsewhere.
A well-executed punt might force a dangerous quarterback to begin near his own goal line. An explosive return could eliminate the need for several difficult offensive plays, giving a team a scoring opportunity it would otherwise have to earn through a longer drive.
The NFL’s evolving kickoff rules have increased the frequency of those situations.
Coordinators now prepare for more live returns, tighter blocking assignments and greater consequences when a kickoff produces favorable field position for the opponent.
Front offices have stronger reasons to invest in versatile returners, reliable kickers and coverage specialists capable of executing under postseason pressure.
Seattle’s championship run showed what that investment could deliver.
Myers rescued a touchdown-free afternoon against Indianapolis. Shaheed sparked a comeback against the Rams and opened the divisional playoffs with a 95-yard touchdown. In the Super Bowl, accurate kicking helped Seattle build a lead that its defense could protect.
Elite special teams cannot turn a weak roster into a championship contender. But when talented opponents have little separating them, a few hidden yards can decide everything.
Seattle proved that a Super Bowl run can begin with 95 yards nobody on offense ever had to gain.
READ MORE: Why NFL special teams rankings reveal the truth about playoff success
FAQs
Q1. What are NFL special teams rankings?
They measure how teams perform on kickoffs, punts, returns and field goals. Advanced rankings also consider coverage, field position and overall efficiency.
Q2. Why did NFL kickoff returns increase in 2025?
The NFL moved touchbacks to the receiving team’s 35-yard line. That encouraged kicking teams to keep more balls in play rather than concede favorable field position.
Q3. Which NFL team had the best special teams DVOA in 2025?
The New York Jets led the NFL with a 10.2% special teams DVOA. Despite that performance, they finished 3-14.
Q4. How did Rashid Shaheed help the Seahawks win the Super Bowl?
Shaheed delivered crucial returns throughout Seattle’s championship season, including a 95-yard touchdown on the opening kickoff against San Francisco in the playoffs.
Q5. Can strong special teams predict NFL playoff success?
Strong special teams can give contenders an edge, but they cannot guarantee playoff success. Teams still need reliable offense and defense to win consistently.
