5 Days Until Training Camp: Packers Special Teams Preview

After years of putrid performances, here comes Rich Bisaccia’s “We-fense.”

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Jul 22, 2022 10:46 AM EDT

In this story:

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Aaron Rodgers is synonymous with excellence. The Green Bay Packers’ special teams are synonymous with incompetence. Maybe the hiring of venerable special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia will change that. With the first practice of training camp set for July 27, here is a preview of the special teams.

Packers Special Teams Depth Chart

K Mason Crosby was the hottest kicker on the planet for two-plus seasons. In 2019, he made 22-of-24 field-goal attempts. In 2020, he made all 16 field-goal attempts. In Week 3 of the 2021 season, Crosby beat the 49ers on the final play with a 51-yarder. When he made two field goals in Week 4 against Pittsburgh, he extended his franchise-record streak to 24 in a row. But the wheels came off from there. By season’s end, he was 25-of-34 on field goals with a league-worst nine misses.

K Gabe Brkic was signed in June. Will he be a challenger to Crosby? A camp leg to keep the soon-to-be 38-year-old fresh? Or the future of the position? As a senior at Oklahoma, Brkic was one of three finalists for the Lou Groza Award as the best kicker in the nation. He made 20-of-26 field-goal attempts. Leg strength is not an issue. He tied for the NCAA lead with five field goals from 50-plus yards and tied the FBS single-game record with three field goals from beyond 50 yards against Tulane.

P Pat O’Donnell was signed in March, the Packers hoping the steady veteran not only can punt more consistently than last year’s punter, Corey Bojorquez, in December and January but fix the holding problems that helped doom Crosby’s season. The 32-year-old spent all eight seasons with the Bears, so he’s certainly not unfamiliar with kicking in the cold and wind. He averaged 46.2 yards per punt last year, second-best of his career. In 2020, he tied for third in the NFL with 28 punts inside the 20.

LS Steven Wirtel replaced former seventh-round pick Hunter Bradley at midseason but the change did nothing to get Crosby out of his funk. Wirtel didn’t have any awful snaps but he wasn’t always on the money, either. The blocked punt that killed the Packers’ season wasn’t all Wirtel’s fault but he also can’t be bulldozed straight backward, either.

LS Jack Coco was signed after trying out at the rookie camp. A walk-on at Georgia Tech, he snapped on field goals in 2018, 2019 and 2020. In 2021, he was put on scholarship and focused only on tight end. It’s almost beyond belief that the challenger at the position hasn’t snapped for a punt in a game since high school.

Leader of the Pack

Mason Crosby is entering his 15th season as Packers kicker. A team captain, he is coming off an awful season but a lot of that was due to all the surrounding problems. After one miss-filled pregame warmup, Crosby spent several minutes coaching up the snapper-holder combo of Steven Wirtel and Corey Bojorquez. After a dismal season in 2012, Crosby topped 80 percent on field goals seven of the next eight seasons. For his career, when inside of 40 yards, he has made 91.8 percent of his attempts. He enters the season ranked 14th in NFL history in scoring. With one of his typical seasons, he’d move up to 11th.

Rising Star

Can a 62-year-old be a rising star? Sure, if his name is Rich Bisaccia. The longtime special teams coordinator has taken over the ultimate fixer-upper. The Packers finished 32nd in Rick Gosselin’s special teams rankings last year. There wasn’t a soul on Earth who was surprised that the season died because of a blocked punt that was returned for a touchdown or that a field goal was blocked before halftime. The Packers haven’t fielded a top-10 special teams since 2007. If the Packers do so this year, a statue of Bisaccia might be put up outside Lambeau.

“We’re just coaching football. We’re not curing cancer,” Bisaccia said. “We’re all coaching football and we all have a certain zeal for players and we have a certain zeal for competitiveness, we have a certain zeal for detail. I just feel like I’m a teacher. I just happen to be teaching football. I happen to be fortunate enough be doing my passion every day. I think it was my dad, along with probably everyone else’s dad, that said if you can go to work and enjoy what you do, you’re never going to work a day in your life. I’ve been fortunate to do that for the last 39 years.”

The Training Camp Battle

Steven Wirtel vs. Jack Coco vs. Every Unemployed Long Snapper. The player grades at Pro Football Focus shouldn’t be taken as gospel. But, for what it’s worth, Wirtel (pictured) was the third-worst snapper in the NFL last season. Even worse than the man he replaced, Hunter Bradley. Wirtel will battle Coco, an undrafted free agent who handled field-goal snaps for three seasons at Georgia Tech.

It’s an odd pairing. The Packers hired a veteran coordinator. They kept their veteran kicker. They signed a veteran punter. Their long snappers are neither veteran nor accomplished. But the next challenger is only a phone call away, and who knows who could become available during training camp if neither Wirtel nor Coco can grab hold of the job.

The Big Question

Can Mason Crosby bounce back? He did after his awful 2012 season, but that was a decade ago. Even Crosby acknowledged that doesn’t mean a thing. Age catches up to everybody at some point. Crosby will turn 38 on Sept. 3. Is he past his prime? Or, as has been shown by the likes of the legendary Adam Vinatieri, can a really good kicker remain a strong performer deep into his 40s?

“He’s had a hell of a career,” new special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia said. “The one good thing I know about Crosby is that he’s come back from a down year to play really well. I’m excited about being around him, learning from him, seeing what his strengths are and where we can go forward and keep improving.”

Best-Case Scenario

It’s Rich Bisaccia to the rescue. The Packers’ special teams have been consistently bad. In Rick Gosselin’s annual rankings, they’ve finished 20th or worse in seven of the past nine seasons. That includes ranking 32nd in 2021, 29th in 2020, 26th in 2019, 32nd in 2018, 29th in 2016 and 32nd in 2014. That’s three bottom-of-the-barrel rankings in a span of seven seasons. Certainly, Bisaccia comes with a lot more credibility than the likes of Ron Zook and Maurice Drayton.

“It’s certainly an opportunity to teach football and maybe teach some life lessons and maybe get guys to find a way to be the glue to the offense and defense,” Bisaccia said. “We use the phrase around here, ‘We-fense.’ It’s not really offense, it’s not really defense. It’s we-fense. It’s us. There’s no other place on the field except for the punt team where you can find a linebacker lined up next to a tight end lined up next to a safety and the running back is the personal protector making all the calls. That’s the only the place you find that on the field. I think a lot of my success or the success we’ve had on special teams in places I’ve been is really player-driven.”

Worst-Case Scenario

The Packers botch long snapper again. Either they take a below-average snapper into the regular season or they make a change too late in training camp. Either way, inconsistent snaps mean a bad start to the season for Mason Crosby. With the changes on offense, the Packers can’t afford to leave points on the table. Meanwhile, the Packers consistently give away field position because they don’t have an obvious returner.

One Superb Stat

On average, since Mike McCarthy took over as Packers coach in 2006, Rich Bisaccia’s special teams have finished 11.5 spots better than Green Bay’s in Rick Gosselin’s annual rankings. After leading the Raiders to the playoffs as interim head coach, why did Bisaccia want to join Matt LaFleur in Green Bay?

“It’s the Green Bay Packers,” he said. “For me, personally, the opportunity to be at one of the marquee National Football League teams that sets a standard and has an expectation to play to that standard every day, along with my excitement and my new energy after meeting and visiting with Coach LaFleur, what he’s done here in a very short period of time, it’s unprecedented. He’s all football. To be part of a franchise that expects to win and the standard is winning it all, and to be a part of something like that to me is energizing.”