Packers Hire Bisaccia’s Right-Hand Man to Help Special Teams
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Literally, Byron Storer was Rich Bisaccia’s right-hand man. Also literally, Bisaccia – the Green Bay Packers’ new special teams coordinator – couldn’t have drawn up a better assistant.
Storer, a teammate of Aaron Rodgers at Cal, went undrafted in 2007 but wound up starting six games at fullback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2007 and 2008. Storer’s playing career ended in 2009 due to injury, but he stayed with the Buccaneers in 2010 as Bisaccia’s assistant special teams coach.
“He was a free agent with us in Tampa and became our starting fullback and then went through multiple knee injuries and surgeries twice and was going to get out and go to business school and all of that,” Bisaccia said in 2018 when he was the Raiders’ first-year coordinator. “I talked him into staying and starting coaching, breaking down film for us.
“I didn’t have an assistant ever, and I wasn’t a computer guy and I didn’t type anything. I did everything hand-written. We won a Super Bowl with no computer pictures and all hand-written words. He’s the guy that kind of got on the computer and re-drew everything I had by hand onto the computer and did all of the typing and all the words that I had on paper (and) he’d put them to computer font and those things. So, he kind of revamped the entire playbook and learned how to coach and the system that he was involved in us was kind of natural for him to go on to grasp.”
Bisaccia and Storer worked together with the Buccaneers, Chargers and Raiders, and now they’ll work together in Green Bay. On Tuesday, the Packers made the hiring of Storer official.
Storer played at Cal with Rodgers, catching one pass for 7 yards from the future NFL MVP as a redshirt freshman in 2003. He was second-team all-conference on special teams in 2004, 2005 and 2006 and the team’s starting fullback as a senior.
Bryon Storer (44) helps tackle Will Blackmon in 2008. (Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports)
His gritty style got him a shot with the Buccaneers, and he took advantage. He had 11 tackles on special teams and caught a couple passes in 15 career games. One of those tackles was of Green Bay's Will Blackmon in the accompanying photo. His work covering kicks for Bisaccia earned him a shot on Bisaccia’s coaching staff.
“I nicknamed him in Tampa ‘Opie,’” Bisaccia said. “Everybody remembers (Mayberry) R.F.D. and (The Andy Griffith Show) and he had that baby face but underneath that baby face he puts the helmet on and he’s got some demons in there. You can ask Derrick Brooks and Cato June and those guys. He’s a heck of a player, real physical, really bright and I’m excited to have him here.”
Together, they’ll be tasked with fixing Green Bay’s perennially awful special teams.
In two decades as a coordinator, Bisaccia’s units have finished in the top 10 of Rick Gosselin’s special teams rankings nine times. He failed to crack the top 10 in any of his four seasons with the Raiders — topping out at No. 11 in 2021 — but his units finished higher than the Packers in 14 of the past 16 seasons and usually by an enormous margin.
