Special teams have been a notorious problem for the Green Bay Packers. This offseason, they hired Rich Bisaccia to try and fix the troubled unit. His biggest task? Finding someone who can alter their grim history on punt and kick returns.
The Packers had many good returners in the 2010s, like Randall Cobb and Micah Hyde. More recently, though, it’s been difficult to find bright spots. The best answer looked like Tyler Ervin, who they claimed off waivers from the Jacksonville Jaguars during the 2020 season. However, injuries have derailed his time in Green Bay.
Last season, seventh-round running back Kylin Hill started the year returning kickoffs and punts. However, an ACL injury ended his season and opened a revolving door of failures. The Packers tried rookie receiver Amari Rodgers, Malik Taylor, Cobb, and Aaron Jones as returners. Each of them has poor results.
Now, there are some reasons to believe the return game can be better. Why? Biscaccia’s new blocking schemes, better execution from those blocks, but also new faces and the willingness to use more starters on special teams.
Bisaccia has shown willingness to use rookie players in important roles. Therefore, he may feature Watson and Doubs as the main returners in 2022.
“I think this draft class, in particular, the skill players have played a lot of special teams at their respective schools, so we’re expecting them all to contribute in some way,” Bisaccia said recently. “And we’ve only had our hands on them for a couple of days, but we’re seeing some things again, effort-wise, retention-wise of the system, we’re hoping they can all contribute in some way.”
Among the options, there should be opportunities for the players who return from last season. For example, Kylin Hill was the primary kickoff returner before his injury. He might start the season on the PUP list, but now a player must miss only four, games to start the regular season with that designation, not six. Hill had 10 kick returns for 199 yards (19.9 yards per return), but he wasn’t used to returning punts.
Amari Rodgers left a bad impression, but a second season under a new scheme can help. Rodgers also had 199 kickoff returning yards, but through 11 plays (18.1 yards per return).
After Hill, the best average was from Malik Taylor, who had 97 yards in five attempts (19.4 average). He’s far from a lock to make the 53-man roster, but the special teams are his best chance to do so.
The best long-term option to kickoff returns, though, can be second-round wide receiver Christian Watson. Special teams is a good opportunity to take advantage of his skillset early on. He was an All-American kick returner at North Dakota State (FCS), with a 26.4-yard average per return on 26 attempts throughout his college career. He clearly has ability with the ball in his hands and the long-track speed.
Amari Rodgers returned most of the punts last season, with 166 yards in 20 attempts (an average of 8.3 yards per punt return). Taylor and Cobb had one attempt each, but Taylor fair caught and Cobb lost a fumble against the Los Angeles Rams.
Even though Cobb wasn’t used frequently on punt returns last year, he has a solid track record. In the initial part of his career, he was an effective and explosive returner. That’s why Bisaccia used Cobb on special teams drills during OTAs.
Right after the draft, general manager Brian Gutekunst noted that the Packers must play better in the third phase of the game after a series of disastrous recent performances.
“…[W]e’ve got to change that (special teams track record),” he said. “We’ve got to get better there. So I think we’re open to a lot of different things that maybe we wouldn’t have done in the past.”
Watson has a promising kick-return history, but another rookie wide receiver is an awarded punt returner. In addition to being First-Team Mountain West Conference twice as a wide receiver, Romeo Doubs was also a First-Team selection as a punt returner in 2021. He had a prolific average of 12.4 yards per return, plus one touchdown.
The Packers don’t need to be a top special teams unit, but it’s imperative to stop being the worst group in the entire NFL. They’re losing because of it, and it haunted them most against the San Francisco 49ers in the playoffs. Right now, rookie wide receivers Watson and Doubs offer the highest upside to improve the return game, and that factor can make the 2022 rookie class immediately impactful.
