For the last several seasons, especially since 2019 when the Seattle Seahawks added kicker Jason Myers, Seattle's special teams were assumed to be a strength of the team entering any given season. For the most part, that held true as Myers has been a Pro Bowl player and Michael Dickson has been one of the best punters in the NFL.
This season, though, under first-year NFL special teams coach Jay Harbaugh, the third phase of the game for the Seahawks has not been good. Myers has been solid on field goal attempts, including making a Seattle-record seven beyond 50 yards, but he also appears to be told to kick the ball short on kickoffs instead of into the end zone, which he definitely can do. Myers is 28th in the league in touchback percentage at 47.54.
This would make sense if Seattle was terrific at getting down the field and pinning a kick returner back, but Seattle isn't. The team is mediocre, ranking 14th in average yards per kickoff return at 27.2. The Seahawks have also allowed the third-most kick returns this season. In other words, Harbaugh's plan to have Myers kick the ball shorter is risking bad things happening for Seattle.
Jay Harbaugh has found a way to make the Seattle Seahawks special teams worse in 2024
Dickson is having arguably one of the worst seasons of his career. His net yards per punt - 42.2 - is his second-lowest since 2020. The percentage of his punts landing inside the 20-yard line is bordering on being the second-worst of his career. Sure, maybe Dickson is just having an off-year, but coupled with Myers' kicking the ball short things seem stranger.
And that is the stuff that is not so bad. Seattle is getting very little from its kick returns or punt returns. Week 13 was a terrible mess. The Seahawks bungled three kickoffs in the first half against the New York Jets while also allowing New York to run a kickoff back for a touchdown. Plus, one might rightfully feel nervous every time Dee Williams fields a punt that he might fumble.
Laviska Shenault, Jr. was kept on the roster to be a threat with returning kickoffs. At times, he has, but he also seems to make poor decisions on when to bring a kickoff out or not. Well, that should read "seemed" instead of "seems" because, on Monday, Seattle released Shenault. This leaves only Williams as a pure kick returner, and, again, he appears to be at risk of fumbling or muffing a kick. He fumbled in Week 13 as well.
Giving up on Shenault means Seattle is beginning to try to find answers to special teams problems that were not there before Jay Harbaugh, who worked with head coach Mike Macdonald at the University of Michigan in 2021, was hired. Harbaugh's job should be on the line.
The issue is that the Seahawks now have to rely solely on Williams to be the kick returner, unless the team signs a free agent to help fill that role, and will still have kickoff concerns. Seattle's third phase has been a negative far more this year than in previous ones. Because of all the issues, the through-line is Harbaugh.
Update: Seattle has also released Dee Williams as of Thursday.