Packer Central

Bisaccia: ‘We’re Not Going to ****can’ Amari Rodgers

Amari Rodgers, with two fumbles in four games, will return punts and possibly kickoffs for the Green Bay Packers against the New York Jets.

Bill Huber

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Sorry, fans, Amari Rodgers will be the Green Bay Packers’ punt returner on Sunday against the New York Jets.

“We’re not going to shitcan the guy,” special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia said on Thursday evening. “He works his rear end off and does a good job making decisions back there. He’s a clean-catch guy right now and he’s a young player. So, I’m real excited about the future, what he’s done and the way he practices, and so we’d like him to do a better job with ball security and hanging onto the ball, and he’s working on it.”

Rodgers has two fumbles – a muff vs. Chicago in Week 2 and a fumble on a return last week against the Giants. Punt return is a dangerous play, one that can swing a game. League-wide, according to Pro Football Reference, there have been 27 fumbles on 647 punts compared to 22 fumbles on 4,416 running plays.

Rodgers is one of six players with two fumbles.

“Other than that, I think he’s done a good job,” Bisaccia said. “He’s made some good decisions. So, we’re just going to keep working on ball security, keep working on making good decisions, keep getting the ball north and south and just see what happens as time goes on.”

Rodgers ranks 13th with an 8.3-yard average on punt returns. He has one of the league’s 22 punt returns of 20-plus yards.

Rodgers also has handled kickoff-return duties for most of the season. He was benched in favor of rookie Christian Watson last week but was back on duty after Watson suffered a hamstring injury. Rodgers, who ranks 17th with a 20.3-yard average on kickoff returns, or cornerback Keisean Nixon, who returned six kickoffs for Bisaccia with the Raiders in 2019 and 2020, will be in that role vs. the Jets.

“I like that he’s really fast, really physical,” Bisaccia said. “He’s got really good eye-hand coordination. He’s just got something about him. He’s got some dirt in the back of his neck and just makes him have a little bit of love for football and for everything we're asking him to do. We’ve given him some work almost every week, so we’ll see what happens. But, yeah, we like him back there, as well.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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