Bisaccia Helps Packers Take 10-Spot Jump in Special Teams Rankings
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Coach Matt LaFleur hired Rich Bisaccia to fix the Green Bay Packers’ chronically horrendous special teams.
Mission (sort of) accomplished.
After ranking last in Rick Gosselin’s annual special teams rankings in 2021 – their third bottom-of-the-barrel placement in eight seasons – Green Bay improved to 22nd in 2022. Gosselin released his 42nd-annual rankings on Friday.
As Gosselin published his rankings, Bisaccia was interviewing to be the new head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.
In the Gosselin rankings, the league’s 32 teams are ranked in 22 kicking-game categories and assigned points according to their standing – one for best, 32 for worst. The Houston Texans were one of the worst teams in the NFL overall but No. 1 in special teams. Six playoff teams finished in the top 12. On the other hand, the top seeds in each conference, the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, finished last and second-to-last, respectively.
While Green Bay’s special teams finished in the bottom half of the league, so there was nowhere to go but up, their 10-spot jump was noteworthy.
“I think absolutely it’s going the right way,” LaFleur said during his season-ending news conference a day after the Week 18 loss to Detroit. “I think you look at our kickoff coverage units, our punt coverage unit, the way these guys run, certainly we saw the effects on kickoff return, although I don’t think last night was our best. But the way these guys compete for that one play, I love the effort, I love the energy.
“He is extremely sound and detailed in what we are trying to get done. I thought you saw improvement. You saw a lot of young players improve throughout the course of the season. I think as a team we’re definitely in terms of that phase of the game. We are definitely trending in the right direction.”
In the major areas, Green Bay finished third in starting field position after a kickoff return, seventh in opponent net punting average, 26th in opponent starting field position after a kickoff return, 31st in net punting average and 15th in field-goal percentage.
There were two black eyes on Bisaccia’s debut season.
One, the Packers allowed a league-worst four blocked kicks.
Two, it took far too long to go with Keisean Nixon as the returner. In the first five games, the Packers had one kickoff return of 25-plus yards. Nixon got his first opportunity in Game 6 and wound up earning All-Pro honors with a league-high five kickoff returns of 50-plus yards.
With some savvy moves by general manager Brian Gutekunst, including the budget signings of Nixon, Rudy Ford and Dallin Leavitt in free agency and seventh-round draft pick Tariq Carpenter, the Green Bay special teams became a force down the stretch.
The focus on special teams, both in terms of coaching and personnel, was a change of course for the franchise. It paid off. The Packers had finished 20th or worse in Gosselin’s rankings in seven of the previous nine seasons. That includes ranking 32nd in 2021, 29th in 2020, 26th in 2019, 32nd in 2018, 29th in 2016 and 32nd in 2014. They have not fielded a top-10 unit since 2007.
“I really like what we did as a teams unit this year,” Gutekunst said last week. “A lot of respect for Rich and how he goes about things. I think the thing that I like the most was the play style of those guys and you guys probably saw it, not only the effort and the intensity but then the pride they took in it. I thought our cover teams were as good as they’ve been in a long time. I think the way we approached it was a little different from a roster-building perspective and I think that’ll continue.”
100 Days of Mocks
Starting Jan. 17, when there were 100 days until the start of the NFL Draft, we started our mock-worthy goal of 100 mock drafts in 100 days. Here’s the series.
100 days: First-round quarterback?
99 days: Trading for outside linebacker
97 days: This pick would break a long drought
Grading the Packers
Aaron Rodgers and the quarterbacks
Aaron Jones and the running backs
Christian Watson and the receivers
Robert Tonyan and the tight ends
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