With memories of missed field goals, blocked punts, and chasing down return men still fresh in fans’ minds, the Green Bay Packers made a move on Monday to help address the special teams woes that helped squash the team’s Super Bowl dreams. The apparent but technically not-yet-announced hiring of Rich Bisaccia as the special teams coordinator is a nice first step. But the Packers will need more than a coach to fix the unit that held them back this season.
For different reasons, the three-person field goal team — Mason Crosby, Corey Bojorquez, and Steven Wirtel — may have played their final game together in a Green Bay uniform. A new coaching regime isn’t going to change when everything remains the same with the snap, hold, and kick, and all three had their struggles over the course of the season. Crosby will go down as a Super Bowl champion and Green Bay legend, but it’s hard not to think that the playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers may have been his last. His leg isn’t as powerful as it once was. Bojorquez has had some booming kicks as a punter, but those are only part the responsibilities of the position.
Long snapper is perhaps the least glamourous position on the field. But when teams have a good one, they tend to hold on to them. The Packers had two players man the position for the better part of 20 years — Rob Davis from 1997 to 2007 and Brett Goode from 2008 to 2017. Hunter Bradley was the guy after that for three and a half seasons, before the switch to Wirtel. His name became perhaps a little too well-known among the fanbase. It started with two missed field goals in his debut against the Kansas City Chiefs and ended by being the player most responsible for San Francisco’s blocked punt, scoop, and score in the playoffs.
The Packers also have been without a real return threat since the early days of Randall Cobb‘s career. They made an investment in the position by drafting Amari Rodgers in the third round of the 2021 draft, but he showed minimal big-play capability. His averages in both punt- and kick-return yardage ranked in the lower half of the league. His longest returns were a 23-yard punt return and 27-yard kick return, adding two fumbles in the process. However, it’s certainly worth giving him another chance. He is only 22 years old, and perhaps a new coordinator can find away to get some more juice out of the return game. It would certainly be nice to add something to the highlight reel, which has been barren for the last decade.
One potential change for the Packers could come with the organizational philosophy of who plays on special teams. You will rarely see any team use their stars on special teams. Green Bay is similar in that their best players aren’t on the field in those situations either. Of the players to see more than 50% of the offensive snaps, only Jon Runyan, Lucas Patrick, and Yosh Nijman played more than 10% of the special teams snaps, topping out at 19% for Nijman. On the defensive side, only Eric Stokes, Rasul Douglas, and Dean Lowry fit that statistical threshold, with Lowry’s special team snap count right at 30%.
The players with the most snaps on special teams for the Packers are Oren Burks, Henry Black, Isaac Yiadom, Ty Summers, Tyler Davis, and Shemar Jean-Charles. None of them made significant contributions on either the offensive or defensive side of the ball. The NFL season is a war of attrition. That’s not to say that Green Bay will be trotting out Rashan Gary and Aaron Jones on a kick coverage team, but Bisaccia and LaFleur may look to increase the talent level in that phase of the game.
Hiring Bisaccia isn’t going to fix everything, and it may not happen overnight. But it signals a step in the right direction. Bill Huber, Packers beat writer for SI.com’s Packer Central, noted that Bisaccia wasn’t going to take just any job. He required that the organization buy in and make special teams a priority:
Getting a quick fix will require more than a change in coordinators, which LaFleur made clear after the season. It will require better personnel almost across the board. A source said the 61-year-old Bisaccia would not have taken the job without assurances there would be more of an organizational focus on special teams. Nonetheless, Bisaccia has some history in that regard. When he joined the Chargers in 2011, they improved from 32nd in 2010 to 25th in 2011. When he was hired by the Cowboys in 2013, Dallas improved from 17th in 2012 to fourth in 2013.
Perhaps the most frustrating part of the Packers playoff loss to the 49ers is how preventable it all felt. If Green Bay simply had something better than the absolute worst special teams unit, they could be gearing up for a Super Bowl this weekend. The team could see severe roster turnover in the coming years, particularly if Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams depart. Therefore, if the Packers have aspirations of staying near the level they’ve been at, special teams feels like an obvious place to focus on. Bisaccia isn’t going to miraculously cure all of Green Bay’s ills, but bringing in a respected outside voice is a great place to start.
