Brian Gutekunst Explains Why Rich Bisaccia Left Packers

INDIANAPOLIS – When the Green Bay Packers announced that Rich Bisaccia was stepping down as special teams coordinator, there was no mention of the word retirement.

There’s a reason for that.

“No, I wouldn’t say we were expecting it at all,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said at the Scouting Combine on Tuesday. “It caught us by surprise, but I think there’s some other opportunities he wanted to look at. Very appreciative for his run with us. I talked to you guys last time (about) how important to our culture he was and I think he’s a fabulous football coach. It’s a big loss but Matt’s going through it now and, hopefully, we’ll be able to get that replaced.”

The key words there, obviously, were “other opportunities.” Gutekunst thought Bisaccia would coach again but wouldn’t go any further.

The 65-year-old’s late decision put his former boss, Packers coach Matt LaFleur, in a bind. With about one-third of the NFL replacing their head coaches this offseason, there was a game of musical chairs among the crop of 2025 coordinators. The best landed on their feet. Another took a college job.

Gutekunst was Mr. Sunshine about that reality, though.

“I think I look at it kind of glass half full,” he said. “This actually allows us to take our time. I think when you get into that coaching cycle, sometimes you’ve got to move fast without knowing everything you want to know about the candidates.”

Coaches on LaFleur’s list of candidates include, but almost certainly is not limited to:

Tom McMahon (interview)

Cameron Achord (interview)

Kyle Wilber (interview)

Matthew Smiley (took job at South Carolina)

Devin Fitzsimmons (interview)

Sam Sewell (interview)

A source said LaFleur was conducting in-person second interviews this week.

“Right now, we don’t have a lot of competition, so Matt’s taking his time, being really thorough,” Gutekunst said. “The candidates that he’s bringing in, I’m pretty excited about. So, I know he’s going to spend some time with them this week and, hopefully, we’ll have that figured out sooner rather than later. But we’re not under any type of time crunch, which is nice.”

Whoever LaFleur chooses will have to fix the Packers’ chronically broken special teams. Under Bisaccia, the Packers in four seasons never finished in the top half of the league in our special teams rankings. Starting with Year 1 of the Ted Thompson era in 2005 through 2023, which was the final year longtime NFL writer Rick Gosselin did his rankings, the Packers had only one top-10 finish in 19 seasons.

“Certainly, I thought we’ve been better on teams the last few years than we’ve been in a long time,” Gutekunst said after the season. “I’ve got a lot of faith in Rich and his staff, what they do around here, not only the X’s and O’s, what they bring to the field, but what they bring to this place culturally is really important.”

Green Bay needs an impact returner after finishing 23rd in kickoff-return average and last in punt-return average. The player who returned punts, sure-handed receiver Romeo Doubs, will be a free agent.

Would Gutekunst consider having a pure returner on the roster?

“I think we think about that all the time and how it affects the roster,” he replied. “With the kickoff, obviously, there’s so much more of them and you did see a significant injury hike, particularly with the returners and the tacklers.

“Certainly, that’s something that we’re taking into account of how we look at that and what type of body types we’re bringing in, not only as a returner but the cover units and everything like that. It is going to affect our roster makeup and how we build the 53 out and the 48, particularly.”

The Packers have a question at kicker, too, after Brandon McManus’ late-season bounce-back ended in playoff disaster. He remains under contract, but is due a roster bonus at the start of the league-year. The Packers re-signed Lucas Havrisik, who replaced an injured McManus for a few games at midseason and ended the season on the practice squad.

“Yeah, we’ll see,” Gutekunst said. “Obviously, Brandon’s got a lot of experience and that’s an important part for us, but we’re going to have competition there one way or another.”

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