LaFleur Targeting Longtime Special Teams Coordinator Bisaccia

Rich Bisaccia, who as interim coach guided the Las Vegas Raiders to the playoffs, would bring a veteran, respected voice to the Green Bay Packers' downtrodden special teams.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – In 2019, new Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur was unable to lure esteemed special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi to his fledgling staff.

After watching his team stumble with Shawn Mennenga in 2019 and 2020 and Maurice Drayton in 2021, LaFleur again is throwing his line and hoping to reel in one of the big fish.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Silverstein, LaFleur has been talking to longtime special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia, who as interim coach led the Las Vegas Raiders to this year’s playoffs. Perhaps conveniently, LaFleur has been in Las Vegas this week coaching the NFC team for Sunday’s Pro Bowl.

LaFleur this week decided to replace Drayton – he made that move official on Saturday – after the Packers finished 32nd in Rick Gosselin’s annual rankings and made three enormous blunders in a playoff loss to San Francisco. So, LaFleur needs a special teams coordinator and Bisaccia needs a job. Despite replacing Jon Gruden and leading the Raiders to the playoffs, they hired longtime New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels as coach.

Before taking over as interim coach, the 61-year-old Bisaccia was in his 20th season coordinating NFL special teams. While he was a beloved figure among the Raiders’ players, his special teams weren’t exactly titans. This season, his units ranked a solid 11th in Gosselin’s annual rankings. The Raiders were 16th in 2020, 25th in 2019 and 19th in 2018.

In 2021, the Raiders ranked 10th in punt returns, 25th in kickoff returns, 31st in punt coverage, 21st in kickoff coverage and second in field-goal accuracy.

“Obviously, we love Rich, and we think he did a great job,” receiver/returner Hunter Renfrow said this week. “It almost feels like you're losing a teammate. We cared a lot about him and are very thankful for him, but you can't hold that against McDaniels. We're excited and I don't think there's any turmoil.”

Prior to joining Gruden with the Raiders, he was the coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys (2013-17), San Diego Chargers (2011-12) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2002-10). In Dallas, his units posted three top-five finishes.

Of course, the Packers might build a statue of Bisaccia alongside Lombardi and Lambeau outside the stadium if he built a top-half-of-the-league unit. Before the Packers finished 32nd in 2021, they ranked 29th in 2020, 26th in 2019, 32nd in 2018, 16th in 2017, 29th in 2016, 17th in 2015, 32nd in 2015, 20th in 2013. Green Bay ranked 12th in 2012 and 13th in 2011.

The Chicago Bears also reportedly are interested in Bisaccia. Their new coach, Matt Eberflus, was defensive coordinator in Dallas while Bisaccia ran the special teams.

Unlike in 2019, when Rizzi joined established Saints coach Sean Payton and a team coming off a 13-win season and a trip to the NFC Championship Game, LaFleur has a winning and established team to sell to Bisaccia. And with so much upheaval on the offensive coaching staff, the veteran Bisaccia would add another veteran voice to the room.

More than anything, hiring the respected Bisaccia would show the Packers are serious about fixing a unit that hasn’t posted a top-10 performance since finishing seventh in 2007.

“Certainly, that will be a big-time priority for us moving forward is to not allow something like this to happen again,” LaFleur said after the season. “It’s really disappointing when our defense goes out there and really dominates for four quarters. There was 4 minutes left in that game and we had the lead. We’ve got to look at everything and that starts with myself just making sure that it is a main priority for us.”

Grading the Specialists

K Mason Crosby ($3.16 million cap charge; ranking No. 10 among kickers)

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Crosby missed two field goals in 2019. He didn’t miss any in 2020. His red-hot kicking continued into the season at San Francisco in Week 3 with a 54-yarder in the first quarter and a 51-yarder to win the game.

But, with changes in the snapper-holder operation, Crosby went into a funk. He missed kicks because of bad snaps, holds and protection. When the operation improved, Crosby did not. Among kickers with at least 20 field-goal attempts, his 73.5 percent success rate was next-to-last in the league. Only his 2012 season was worse from an accuracy perspective. Due in part to age and late-season games in the cold, his touchback percentage on kickoffs ranked seventh from the bottom.

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A restructured contract cut Crosby’s cap charge for 2021 but bumped it to $4.375 million for 2022. The Packers could move on and save $2.395 million for next season but incur dead-money charges through 2025. He’ll turn 38 just before the start of the season.

Grade: F.

P Corey Bojorquez ($1.02 million cap charge; ranking No. 19 among punters)

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Acquired in a trade with the Rams after final cuts, Bojorquez ranked 11th with a 46.5-yard average and 17th with a 40.0-yard net average. His 82-yard punt at Chicago gave him the NFL’s longest punt for a second consecutive season. He had 18 punts inside the 20 with four touchbacks. Those were all improvements over the man he replaced, 2018 fifth-round pick JK Scott.

Still, his season seems like a disappointment because of how it ended. Starting with Week 6 at Chicago through Week 11 at Minnesota, Bojorquez had six consecutive games with net averages of at least 45.7 yards. In Week 12 against the Rams, he had a net average of only 39.8 yards because he had three punts inside the 20. It was a punting clinic. It all went off the rails in Week 14 against Chicago, with a four-game stretch with nets of 10.0, 42.0, 41.8 and 21.5 yards. Too many kicks either went straight down the middle of the field or were shanked out of bounds.

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Punting is only part of the job. He’s also got to be a flawless holder for Crosby. There were some real struggles, though he was pretty solid down the stretch aside from a dropped hold in the bitter cold against Minnesota in Week 17.

Bojorquez will be an unrestricted free agent this coming offseason. With a league-best 50.8 average in 2020 and his mostly solid performance in 2021, he probably won’t be cheap.

Grade: C.

LS Steven Wirtel ($366,667 cap charge; ranking No. 33 among long snappers)

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The Packers at midseason finally parted ways with 2018 seventh-round pick Hunter Bradley. Bradley was consistently inconsistent during his three-plus seasons but Wirtel wasn’t appreciably better. His snaps were never truly awful but the best snappers can spin it so perfectly that the holder doesn’t need to adjust the ball. He lacked that kind of precision. Wirtel got steam-rolled on the fateful blocked punt that doomed Green Bay in the playoff game.

Take them for what they’re worth, but Pro Football Focus grades long snappers. Bradley was the fourth-worst in the league and Wirtel was the third-worst.

The Packers don’t really have a problem finding long snappers. They’ve actually done well in that regard. They just have an impossible time in realizing they’ve found them. Five former Packers were full-time snappers this season. The Packers drafted Clark Harris (Bengals) in 2007, and signed J.J. Jansen (Panthers) in 2008, Rick Lovato (Eagles) in 2015, Taybor Pepper (49ers) twice in 2017 and Zach Triner (Buccaneers) in 2017 and training camp in 2018.

Grade: D.


Published
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.