2025 Special Teams Preview

July 23, 2025

by Alex Zeese

Washington’s special teams unit was a surprising strength last season, finishing near the top of many special teams categories. They finished 9th in punt return average with 10.4 yards per return and 7th in kick return average with 29.2 yards per kick return, but they never got that big special teams touchdown last year. The punting game was fantastic – they were top 6 in net yards per punt at 42.9. While Washington’s approximately 5,181 kickers were okay on extra points last year, at 45 for 47, they were 24th in the league on field goals, at 34 for 42, making just 81%, something that you have to hope improves this season.

Long Snapper
I will make this as long of a write up as any long snapper deserves. Tyler Ott has returned for another season.

Punter
While 2024 was not Tress Way’s best season, it was impressively his most average. I say that because Way’s career punting average after 11 years is 46.9 yards per punt, and his average last year was exactly 46.9 yards on 50 punts. In terms of his other key metrics, Way had another strong season, putting 44% of his punts inside the 20, which was 11th best in the league.  He had just 2 touchbacks, which was tied for 2nd best in the league. The team allowed just 158 return yards, top 5 in the league, and a record low in his time here.

Way’s 50 punts was the 2nd lowest total of his career. He had 49 punts in 2016, which was, of course, back when seasons were just 16 games. But that will happen when you are able to take 2 games off from punting because the team never attempted a punt.

It’s sad to think that Tress Way’s career only has another 10-15 years left.

Kicker
Thinking back on the mess of a situation that was Washington’s kicking game last year makes me want to cry a little. Washington went through, by best estimate, 439 kickers.

In reality, the team only used 4 kickers in the regular season last year as they had to release Brandon McManus due to his off-the-field trouble. Cade York was 0 for 2 on field goals, but made 2 extra points. Greg Joseph was a more respectable 2/3 with a long of 41 in the 20-19 nail biter vs the Saints. Zane Gonzalez, who played in 6 games, went 5 for 7 on field goals.  Austin Seibert went 27/30 last year. While Seibert proved to be a good, reliable short-range kicker, he was never a power leg; he ended up missing three of five beyond 50 yards.

The team ended up bringing in veteran kicker Matt Gay on April 29th on a 5 million dollar contract. The 31 year old kicker has had an up-and-down career.

He was drafted in the 5th round in 2019 by Tampa Bay, who released him after he struggled in his rookie season. But his career rebounded after that with the LA Rams where he was 74 for 80 over 3 seasons, where he looked like he could be one of the NFL’s top place kickers. However, his last two seasons with the Colts he was just 64 for 78, a 10% drop off in his average from his time in LA.

That said Gay does hold the record for hitting the most 50+ yard field goals in a game (4).

Kick Returner

At the end of last season, the team moved away from Austin Ekeler as kick returner to wide receiver Luke McCaffrey. McCaffrey had a respectable 29.9 yards per return, not as good as Ekeler’s 31.3, but both were above the NFL average 27.6. The move makes sense given that Ekeler’s more valuable as an offensive weapon and they were still looking for a role for McCaffrey on the team last year.

I would expect that McCaffrey and Ekeler will be in the rotation, returning kicks next year, along with some other obvious candidates, including Jaylin Lane, whom I will write about more in the punt return section. Other names to keep an eye on would be rookie Ja’Corey Brooks, who did some kick return duites at Alabama and Louisville, and I’d assume that young guys like Jacory Croskey-Merritt and Jacoby Jones will also be given an opportunity

Punt Returner

Last year’s primary punt returners were Olamide Zaccheaus and Jamison Crowder, neither of whom returned to the roster this season. Jaylin Lane will be the first guy to get a shot at punt return duties, and I personally could not be more excited.

He excelled at returns in college. In his 2 seasons at Virginia Tech, Layne had 29 punt returns for 276 yards, a solid 9.5 yards per return. However, he didn’t really get involved in kick return duties, where he fielded just two kicks. In his 3 seasons prior to that at Middle Tennessee State, he had 38 punt returns for an average of 12 yards per return and 37 kick returns a solid 22 yards per return.

I am hopeful that Adam Peters may have found a long-term solution at returner here with Lane, a kid with elite 4.34 speed, a talented athlete even though he is on the smaller side.

Other Key Contributors

For the most part every NFL player contributes on special teams in some way. Over the course of the 2024 season 61 different players played at least one snap on Teams with just 8 players on Washington’s roster never having seen the field on teams including the 3 QB’s, starting center Tyler Biadasz, Brian Robinson, K.J. Osborn and 2 depth char defensive ends, Andre Jones and Carlos Watkins. Every other player pitched in.

Last season 12 played more special teams snaps than any of the teams kickers, punter and long snapper.

Mykal Walker 344
Nick Bellore 334
Jeremy Reaves 317
Percy Butler 293
Tyler Owens 243
John Bates 225
Jeremy McNichols 214
Michael Davis 188
Jeremy Chinn 179
Ben Sinnott 155
Darrick Forrest 153
Jordan Magee 146

From that group, Jeremy Chinn is with the Raiders, Mykal Walker is now with the Cardnals, Darrick Forrest is with the Bills. Michael Davis is a free agent. But the bulk of the special teams core from last season has returned for 2025.