From Britain Covey to Braden Mann, Eagles special teams coordinator Michael Clay’s units have been special

Michael Clay didn’t have much time to celebrate Jake Elliott’s game-saving, 59-yard field goal against the Buffalo Bills.

The Eagles special teams coordinator watched the overtime-forcing kick rip through the wind and the rain Sunday night at Lincoln Financial Field before sailing through the uprights. A “point and a smile” later, he was on to rounding up the kickoff team to ensure the new life one of his units afforded the team wasn’t squandered by a different one.

“I know there was 20 seconds left, I’ve got to get our kickoff team ready because they’ve got to go down and cover,” Clay said Tuesday. “You never know what’s going to happen. They could line a guy back 9 yards [in the end zone] and be ready to go. So as energetic as that stadium was and such a good feeling for Jake, I still have to complete my job as a special teams coordinator.”

Almost each of Clay’s special teams groups made a significant imprint on the Eagles’ home win over the Bills. Braden Mann averaged 53.8 yards per punt in challenging conditions, including one that pinned the Bills inside their own 10-yard line. Jalen Carter blocked a field goal attempt in the second quarter to help keep the Eagles in the game, and Britain Covey ripped off an 18-yard punt return that helped the Eagles flip the field even as the offense sputtered.

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Mann, 26, joined the Eagles in late September and has given them stability at punter for the first time in over a year. The team started the season with Arryn Siposs on the practice squad and calling him up for games, but eventually held workouts to find a new punter after Week 2. Mann, who spent the previous three seasons with the New York Jets, is averaging 49.1 yards per attempt, which ranks ninth in the NFL.

“He did a heck of a job for us to give our opportunity to go cover and flip the field, especially in that first half,” Clay said.

The Eagles special teams as a whole have taken a significant step forward this season. The group finished 13th last year in defense-adjusted value over average (DVOA), but a few big plays conceded throughout the regular season and playoffs overshadowed any notion of steady play. The Eagles struggled to find consistency with their punt coverage in particular, something that led to Kansas City’s Kadarius Toney returning a punt 65 yards in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs.

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This year, the Eagles special teams rank No. 1 in DVOA, which measures efficiency across all units. The group’s performance against the Bills ranked No. 2 across the NFL as well.

“Our guys are playing lights out,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said Monday. First of all, I think Coach Clay has done a phenomenal job. ... He loves the process of football, and he is just obsessed with getting better. I really think that he’s grown so much in two years.”

The Eagles’ punt-return game has taken a meaningful step as well. Covey has amassed 296 punt-return yards, which leads the NFL. The 26-year-old’s 14.8 yards per attempt rank fourth in the league, although each of the players ahead of him has a smaller sample size.

For comparison, Covey averaged 9.3 yards per return as a rookie last year and once again started this season on the practice squad after an injury hurt his chances of making the 53-man roster out of training camp.

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With the benefit of hindsight, Sirianni said the Eagles were lucky not to lose the return specialist and slot receiver on the waiver wire.

“As crazy as we were to cut him, there were 31 other teams crazy not to pick him up,” Sirianni said. “We all make mistakes, right? But he is a stud. I constantly ask our coaches, I’m like, ‘Is Britain going to be first-team All-Pro? Is Britain going to be in the Pro Bowl?’ I’m on a mission to make sure that happens.”

Said Clay: “He’s done some really amazing things in terms of understanding what the punt-coverage team is doing, what the punter is doing. And our punt-return team, especially on the outside, has done a really good job to allow Covey freedom to get down the field and make some plays.”