What are the essential components of a Super Bowl team?

You’ll get a myriad of answers to that question. Everyone will include a franchise quarterback. Other common answers may include a star wide receiver, a dominant pass rusher, and a reliable offensive line.

NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah has popularized a specific list, which includes the following pieces:

  • 1 quarterback
  • 3 offensive playmakers
  • 3 quality offensive linemen
  • 2 pass rushers
  • 3 defensive playmakers

In these areas, the New York Jets seem to have a long way to go. While New York is loaded with intriguing young prospects who have the potential to fill some of the 12 boxes, these prospects remain unproven for the time being.

But what if there is a known commodity on the Jets’ roster who fills a critical Super Bowl box that Jeremiah excluded?

You could ask 100 people the aforementioned question about the essential components of a Super Bowl team, and you might not get a single response that includes “punter”.

Yet, recent NFL history shows that quality punting tends to be a component of most Super Bowl-winning teams—great news for the Jets and All-Pro-caliber punter Austin McNamara.

The importance of punting for Super Bowl-winning teams

Arguably, the best metric for evaluating a punting unit’s efficiency is FTN Fantasy’s DVOA, which accounts for field position and other contextual factors to quantify the effectiveness of each punt relative to league-average expectations in that situation. The final number is an estimate of how many total points, compared to league average, the team received from its punting unit.

Here are the last 16 Super Bowl champions (2010-25) and where they ranked in punting DVOA; for context, a rating of 0.0 equates to league-average. Teams with above-average punting units are in bold.

  • 2025 Seahawks: +2.5 (15th)
  • 2024 Eagles: +3.3 (10th)
  • 2023 Chiefs: +3.2 (12th)
  • 2022 Chiefs: +11.0 (2nd)
  • 2021 Rams: +1.7 (16th)
  • 2020 Buccaneers: -5.4 (26th)
  • 2019 Chiefs: -0.6 (19th)
  • 2018 Patriots: +4.5 (10th)
  • 2017 Eagles: +3.4 (14th)
  • 2016 Patriots: +12.1 (3rd)
  • 2015 Broncos: +4.9 (7th)
  • 2014 Patriots: +0.2 (16th)
  • 2013 Seahawks: +10.4 (4th)
  • 2012 Ravens: +7.4 (10th)
  • 2011 Giants: +10.9 (5th)
  • 2010 Packers: +3.5 (15th)

Of the last 16 Super Bowl champions, 14 (87.5%) had a net-positive punting unit. The average punting DVOA was +4.6, and the average ranking was 12th.

History doesn’t lie: If your punting unit isn’t at least slightly above-average, your odds of winning a championship are much slimmer.

For that reason, it seems the Jets may have quietly found a crucial Super Bowl puzzle piece that few analysts and fans are privy to.

Relative to position, Austin McNamara may have been the Jets’ best player in 2025. The second-year punter posted the following metrics in an incredibly consistent campaign:

  • 4.70s average hang time (2nd)
  • 29.6% of punts returned (2nd)
  • 90.3 PFF punting grade (2nd)
  • 43.1-yard net average (6th)
  • 6.3 yards per return (2nd)
  • 18 punts downed (1st)
  • 25 fair catches (2nd)

Behind McNamara, the Jets finished first in the NFL with a punting DVOA of 15.6. In fact, the Jets’ punting unit was the third-most impactful special teams facet in all of football, trailing only the Jets’ kick return unit (16.7) and the Seahawks’ kickoff unit (18.9).

Maintaining league-leading efficiency on an annual basis will be challenging for McNamara, but with that type of performance at just 24 years old, his floor is incredibly high moving forward. McNamara and the Jets’ punt coverage could take a steep nosedive in 2026 and still clear the above-average threshold that tends to be required for Super Bowl winners.

Nobody talks about the importance of a good punter in the makeup of your typical Super Bowl team, but the reality is that above-average punting has been about as common among recent Super Bowl winners as above-average performance in any other facet of the game.