If there’s one thing NFL coaches talk about all the time, it’s the fact that you have to win all three phases of the game if you want to win in the NFL and that includes special teams. No one understands that message more than the Seattle Seahawks, who pulled off one of the most dominant special teams performances in NFL postseason history on Sunday night during their 29-13 win over the New England Patriots.
When it comes to special teams, the Seahawks put their money where their mouth is: When it comes to the kicker and punter positions, the Seahawks spent more money than any other team in the NFL this year and their investments paid off big time in Super Bowl LX.
Jason Myers played so well that he you could argue that he should have been voted MVP of the game. The Seahawks kicker, who scored 17 of Seattle’s 29 points, set a Super Bowl record with five field goals.
In a blowout win, it might seem like the kicks weren’t very big, but with points at a premium, the Seahawks needed every point they could get and Myers came through every time Seattle called upon him. He opened the scoring of the game in the first quarter with a 33-yard field goal that gave Seahawks a 3-0 lead and they would never trail after that.
Not only did Myers hit from 33, but he also hit from 26, 39 along with two kicks from 41 yards away. Those might not sound like challenging kicks, but every kick in the Super Bowl is a challenge. Going into Super Bowl LX, kickers had hit just 84.9% of their field goals in the big game from 41 yards and in, so hitting 100% was certainly an achievement.
And let’s not forget, Myers’ 5-for-5 performance came at Levi’s Stadium, a venue that caused nightmares for kickers in 2025. During the regular season, visiting kickers hit just 10 of 16 field goals and that 62.5% hit rate was the lowest percentage by visiting kickers at any stadium this year.
Myers has been a not-so-secret weapon for Seattle all year. During the regular season, he hit 41 field goals while also leading the NFL in points with 171. If you throw in his postseason numbers, Myers ended scoring 204 points on the season, making him the first PLAYER in NFL history to score 200 points in a single season (We’ve got more on that here).
The Seahawks signed Myers in 2019, and since then, he’s been a home run for them. The team loves him so much that they made him one of the highest-paid kickers in the NFL back in 2023 when they signed him to a four-year, $21.1 million extension. His average annual value of $5.275 million makes him the eighth-highest-paid kicker in the league.
Seahawks general manager John Schneider knows the importance of special teams, which is why he also has a punter who just happens to be the highest-paid guy at his position in the NFL. Michael Dickson, who makes an average of $4.05 million per year, is the only player on Seattle’s entire roster who is the highest-paid player at his position. And on Sunday night, Dickson showed why he’s the highest-paid punter in the NFL.
The Australian phenom punted seven times against New England, and on three of those punts, he pinned the Patriots inside their own 6-yard line. It’s impressive when a punter can pin an opponent inside its own 20, it’s spectacular when they can pin an opponent inside its own 10, but pinning an opponent inside its own 6-yard line THREE times in the SUPER BOWL? That’s pretty much unheard of.
His best punt came in the fourth quarter: With the Seahawks leading 19-7, the Patriots were looking to sneak back into the game, but Dickson shut the door on that with a 55-yard punt that pinned the Patriots on their own 4-yard line.
With a bad punt there, that could have set the Patriots up with good field position. At that point, the score was 19-7, so if New England drives down and get a touchdown, it’s suddenly 19-14. However, the Seahawks’ defense took over after Dickson’s punt and forced an interception.
During his college career at Texas, Dickson was the MVP of a bowl game — seriously — and you could certainly argue that he derved an MVP vote or two in this game.
Between Dickson and Myers, the Seahawks are spending an average of $9.325 million per year on the two of them, which makes them the ONLY team in the NFL that spends more than $9 million per year on their kicker and punter combined.
The salary cap is expected to top $300 million this year for the first time ever, but teams still aren’t investing in their specialists. The Seahawks clearly take their special teams seriously and they have the receipts to prove it. Since the NFL is a copycat league, it’s possible that teams might start spending more money on both their kicker and punter (Most teams will pay one or the other, but not both).
The Seahawks win also means that someone in the Harbaugh family will have bragging rights this offseason: Jay Harbaugh. In his second season as Seattle’s special teams coordinator, the son of Jim Harbaugh earned a Super Bowl ring that has eluded his dad.
The Seahawks are a special team and one big reason for that is because they truly understand the importance of special teams. And that’s a big reason why they just won their second Lombardi Trophy in franchise history.
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