RENTON, Wash. — As the Seattle Seahawks were celebrating their wild win over the Los Angeles Rams last week, defensive tackle Leonard Williams made sure that Rashid Shaheed knew how important of a role the return man had played.
It might have been easy to overlook amid the chaos of their 16-point rally in the fourth quarter and eventual 38-37 win in overtime, but it was Shaheed’s touchdown on a 58-yard punt return that kicked off their improbable comeback.
Trailing 30-14 midway through the fourth quarter, Seattle’s win probability had dropped to as low as 2.7%, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. That changed when Shaheed scored, breathing life into the Seahawks’ sideline and a Lumen Field crowd that was about to witness a season sweep by their division rivals.
“Shid returning that punt was incredible,” Williams said. “You just felt the momentum swing. It was amazing. I keep seeing him in the locker room and just telling him that he brought us back into that game. He’s been a big key, bringing him on this team. He’s been a big factor is helping us win some games.”
That’s been true of the Seahawks’ special teams as a whole, which has had a significant hand in each of their past three wins.
With five straight victories, Mike Macdonald’s team sits in sole possession of first place in the NFC West at 12-3 and currently holds the conference’s No. 1 see. They’ll try to hang onto it when they play the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, CBS) before finishing the regular season with another road game against the San Francisco 49ers.
If you’re looking for potential X-factors for the Seahawks as they head towards the playoffs, look no further than coordinator Jay Harbaugh’s unit. Seattle has sat atop ESPN Analytics’ special teams rankings for the last month and a half, and after several comfortable victories over the first two-thirds of the season, that could be a difference maker against more evenly-matched opponents they’ll face down the stretch.
“Our special teams unit has just been a massive catalyst for us,” Macdonald said after the Rams game.
Four days earlier, the Seahawks eked out an 18-16 win over the Indianapolis Colts in which all of their points came via six Jason Myers field goals, including the winning kick from 56 yards out in the final minute. A week before that, special teams helped the Seahawks pull away from the Atlanta Falcons when Shaheed returned the opening kickoff of the second half 100 yards for a touchdown.
Shaheed was one of six Seahawks named to the Pro Bowl on Tuesday, making it for the second time in his career as the NFC’s return specialist.
Myers was not among them despite a strong season. He’s made an NFL-high 37 field goals (out of 42 attempts) and all 44 of his point-after tries. Seattle’s opponents have the worst average starting position after kickoffs, which owes much to how well Myers has perfected his ball placement as part of the league’s new kickoff rules.
Shaheed’s recent return touchdowns give the Seahawks four scores on special teams this season. Running back George Holani fell on a muffed kickoff in the end zone in Week 2 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Seven days later, rookie receiver Tory Horton returned a punt 95 yards for a touchdown against the New Orleans Saints.
Horton remains sidelined with a shin injury he suffered right around the time the Seahawks acquired Shaheed in a trade with New Orleans in early November. Shaheed said he knew upon his arrival that the Seahawks place a strong emphasis on special teams under Macdonald and Harbaugh.
Shaheed described the coordinator as “pretty chill” and “super smart.”
“He has a new game plan, it seems, every single week,” Shaheed said of Harbaugh. “He’s super prepared. You can tell he watches a lot of film, and he cares … about us and how we look on film. I feel like we play to his standard and it’s helped us succeed and get to the point we’re at today.”
Former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll often referred to special teams as being one-third of the game — and meant it. That belief is shared by Macdonald, who began his NFL coaching career with the Baltimore Ravens under Jim Harbaugh, a former special teams coordinator.
When Macdonald replaced Carroll in 2024, one of his first moves was to hire Jay Harbaugh — John’s nephew and Jim’s son — as his special teams coordinator. The two had briefly worked together in Baltimore in 2014 and at Michigan in 2021, when Macdonald and Harbaugh were running the Wolverines’ defense and special teams, respectively.
The Seahawks ranked 29th in ESPN Analytics’ special teams rankings last season thanks in large part to five turnovers via muffs or fumbles. They also had a field-goal try blocked and returned for a touchdown, leading to an upset loss to the New York Giants.
This season, Harbaugh and assistant special teams coach Devin Fitzsimmons have had their unit atop the ESPN Analytics rankings since Week 10.
“I love how Jay and Fitz think about the game and how they try to position our players,” Macdonald said. “To me, it’s our responsibility as coaches to give our guys advantages, and Jay [is] as good as anybody about doing that. I love how he coaches the guys, too, about thinking outside the box, how we build our systems. It’s the vision about how we want to be as a team, is how we coach on special teams. He deserves a lot of credit. He’s willing to take calculated risks. He doesn’t coach scared, which I really appreciate and respect about him.”
One of the flew blips for the Seahawks’ special teams came in their win over the Tennessee Titans in Week 12, when they allowed a 90-yard punt return for a touchdown. Derion Kendrick, the cornerback Seattle had claimed off waivers from the Rams at the start of the season, lost contain as the gunner on that play.
The Seahawks waived Kendrick two days later. The Rams then brought him back.
Shaheed ran by him on his return touchdown Thursday night.
“We’ve been focused on that left return, field return, all week,” Shaheed said. “We knew that they had kind of a weak point with their special teams and we were able to circle the punt team and make a big play.”
With their win over Los Angeles, the Seahawks clinched a playoff spot and maintained control of their own destiny when it comes to the NFC West title and the conference’s top seed. They’ll earn both if they win their final two games.
The Seahawks are the only team in the top 10 in ESPN Analytics’ rankings for offense (10th), defense (third) and special teams (first).
“They’ve done a fantastic job,” Williams said of Seattle’s special teams. “It’s really incredible to see a team be great in all three phases. I think that’s really rare. We can count on the defense, we can count on the offense, we can count on special teams, and there’s been a lot of times where the special teams has straight up won games for us this year.”
