Michael Dickson, Jason Myers at the forefront of the Seahawks’ special teams revival

So, the Seattle Seahawks can’t score anymore. Sure, they’re atrocious on third down on both sides. Yes, obviously they run the ball very well but don’t want to, and throw the ball a ton but aren’t good at it.

But none of that matters when rostering the best kicking pair in the NFL.

That’s right, Jason Myers and Michael Dickson make up one of the most potent Special Teams unit in the league, according to incredibly subjective research that nobody actually uses to prove anything.

Because, kickers.

Actually, there is some real analysis in here - Seattle has the fourth best ST unit by DVOA this year, according to Football Outsiders. That is vast improvement from the past three seasons where they consistently ranked in the bottom half. Additionally, there’s a sizeable jump after that. The Seahawks are 3.3% stronger than the next team, the Buffalo Bills, which is a narrower gap than they are behind highest-ranked Baltimore Ravens.

According to FO’s rankings, Seattle is a complete unit, too.

• Fourth best field goal and extra point DVOA, which I find a very strange way to do things over, say, amount or percentage of kicks made. But hey, I’m a writer.
• NFL’s best kickoff team.
• Eighth best kickoff return team.
• Sixth best punting unit.
• And finally....apparently not good at punt returns. 20th.

But back to the workhorses. Jason Myers has the longest kick in the league this year at 61 yards, and is alongside only Mason Crosby in not missing a field goal. Meanwhile, Michael Dickson is back to his Pro Bowl level, averaging the second-farthest average per punt in the league. He has the fifth-farthest punt this year, has not been blocked, and is fourth in amount of punts inside the 20. This is made all the more impressive when one’s team does things like punting from the opponent’s 37 yard line.

It’s been a rough week for Seattle analysis, but it’s good every once in a while to remember that there is a third element to the game, and these guys are good at it. The Seahawks are 8-4 largely because they’ve been good at two of the three phases of football all season. Offense and defense traded off in lock-step, but special teams has remained solid.