History awaits: Will the Super Bowl finally see a punt return touchdown?

Surprisingly, no one has ever returned a punt for a score in the NFL's biggest game in a drought that just might come to an end this year in a game featuring two of the league's most dynamic returners.

“I just got educated about that,” New England’s Marcus Jones said this week. “Being able to be the first one in history to do that would mean a lot.”

Jones has three career punt return touchdowns, including two this season. His counterpart in Seattle, Rashid Shaheed, also has three in his career, including one this season.

Shaheed said he was asked this week to guess how many there had been in a Super Bowl and figured at least two, before finding out the actual answer.

"That’s crazy,” he said before echoing Jones in that it would mean a lot to be the first.

After 259 punt returns ended short of the end zone in Super Bowl history, could this be the year someone breaks through?

It nearly happened three years ago when Kansas City's Kadarius Toney had a 65-yard return that set up a 5-yard TD drive in the fourth quarter in one of the key moments in the Chiefs' win over Philadelphia.

Shaheed and Jones will try to do a little better this year.

“It would be obviously, history,” Shaheed said. "It would mean a lot to the team, being able to create a game-changing play like that. It would be amazing.”

It would be fitting if a big special teams play had a major impact on the Super Bowl after a season that seemed to produce more game-altering plays in the often overlooked third phase of the game.

The 2025 season was the year of special teams with a record number of long field goals, a staggering number of blocked kicks, big returns and costly blunders playing a big role every week.

The 44 blocked kicks were tied for the most in any season since 2017 and the 15 punt return touchdowns were the most since 2012. There were also an NFL-record 73 made field goals from at least 55 yards — including 12 from 60-plus for more than double the previous high for a season.

The kick return rate jumped to 74% from 33% last season in the second year of the so-called “dynamic” kickoff for the highest return rate in 15 years.

“I think a big part of that is because now you’re covering every kick and because of that now you’re putting more focus on kickoffs and returns and maybe not as much focus on punt returns,” Patriots special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer said. “Now you are getting a good mix of big punt returns, punt blocks, kickoff returns, kickoffs.

"It's been fun. You have to embrace it and find ways to beat it.”

While Drake Maye, Sam Darnold and the stellar defenses for New England and Seattle might be getting most of the headlines this week, the team that wins the kicking game Sunday might well end up hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.

The Seahawks, under special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh, were the top team in the NFL this season in expected points added by special teams play, gaining nearly four points per game better than average. The Patriots finished in the middle of the pack, but have a player in Jones who is able to change a game in the blink of an eye.

“I’m not sure he has as much in terms of weaknesses and he can kind of do it all," Harbaugh said. ”He has the very best of what a lot of returners have put together. The speed, the vision, the contact balance. He fields the ball really well. He can make you miss. He’s the real deal."

The Seahawks used a punt return touchdown from Shaheed to fuel a late-season comeback win over the Los Angeles Rams that helped them win the NFC West. Shaheed then returned the opening kick of Seattle’s playoff opener for another touchdown to key a win over San Francisco in the divisional round and the Seahawks used a muffed punt by the Rams in the NFC championship game to make it to this stage.

The Seahawks also had the NFL’s best kick coverage unit with the average starting drive for opponents after kicks starting at the 28.

“He is very creative,” Springer said of Harbaugh. “He does a great job scheming teams up. He finds your weaknesses and he exploits those weaknesses and has a lot of those guys in the right places to make you look weak at the same time. You can tell they have a belief among their special teams group that they’re going to go out there and dominate and they believe that there’s one play away from doing it.”

New England wasn't quite as dominant on special teams as Seattle this season, but had three return touchdowns on kicks and punts and had a blocked field goal in the fourth quarter of the AFC championship game to preserve a three-point lead over New England.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL