Seahawks bye-week grades: Blair Walsh and special teams
By Lee Vowell
The Seahawks have begun the season at 3-2. A decent start that had them in first place heading into the bye week. Still, the lack of return game has affected Seattle. How has special teams done overall?
It has been two years since Seahawks kick and punt returner Tyler Lockett has returned either for a touchdown. He has not had a lot of chances to return kickoffs this season, returning only six but for a good 25.5 yards-per-return. The problem with the return game has been punt returns. This is where Lockett could let his open-field freakiness shine through, but that has not happened.
Lockett has returned eight punts for only 6.12 yards-a-return. This is good for 22nd in the NFL. His long is only 13 yards. Is this issue due to Lockett still working his way back from breaking his leg? Or is there not good enough blocking? Maybe it is both. But a punt returner has to be able to make the first guy miss because there will always naturally be an unblocked individual on the punting team. Lockett has not been able to do this. He has not been able to help the Seahawks with field position yet. Post bye-week, Seattle needs a bit more from Lockett.
On the positive side, Blair Walsh has been great. Sure, he missed an extra point and muffed a kickoff, but he has also only missed one field goal attempt. Walsh is nine of ten in field goal attempts and extra points, respectively. Better than Steven Hauschka was last year (though Hauschka is having a great year so far in Buffalo). Walsh has not attempted a kick beyond 50 yards yet, but he is four of four on kicks between 40-49 yards. Maybe most importantly, Walsh has not missed a kick in the second halves of games.
Jon Ryan is having a better year than he did in 2016. His average punt might only be about half-a-yard better than last season (44.4 to 44.0), but his net-punt average is almost a yard better (40.3 to 39.5). This means Ryan is placing the ball better with more hang time. Moreover, he already has 10 punts downed inside the opponents 20 yard-line through five games. If he continues this trend, he will have his most punts downed inside the 20 since 2012.
Related Story: Seahawks bye-week grades: How are the DBs doing so far in 2017?
Grades: Kick/punt returns: C; Walsh: A; Ryan: B+