Mennenga Sees Strong Finish to 2019 as Building Block

There’s two ways to look at the special teams last season under first-year coordinator Shawn Mennenga. He sees the glass as being half-full.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – There’s two ways to look at the Green Bay Packers’ special teams last season under first-year coordinator Shawn Mennenga.

The glass-half-empty viewpoint looked at Rick Gosselin’s annual special teams rankings. The Packers finished a woeful 26th in his annual rankings, which take into account 22 kicking-game categories.

The glass-half-full viewpoint judged the Packers on how they did after the December addition of returner Tyler Ervin. Through 12 games, Green Bay had minus-8 yards of punt returns. In the final four games, Ervin averaged 9.6 yards on 10 runbacks. For the season, the Packers third in field-goal percentage and fourth in penalties.

Mennenga on Friday saw the glass as half-full.

“I feel good,” Mennenga said about his units’ late-season performance in the accompanying video. “Obviously, our goal is to be the No. 1 special teams unit. You know, 26th isn't good enough. I mean, it depends on the metrics you look at. There’s some other rankings that we look at that we were higher in that Gosselin. Our goal is to be the best we can be and help this team.”

Having the bulk of the unit back should help. The Packers re-signed veteran kicker Mason Crosby after the best season of his career. Punter JK Scott, who faltered after a hot start, and long snapper Hunter Bradley need to find consistency as they enter their third seasons. Six of the seven leading tacklers, including the top four of Oren Burks, Will Redmond, Allen Lazard and Ty Summers, returned, as well.

Experience almost always is a benefit, and that should be especially true this year, with everyone behind due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With a strong base of knowledge, Mennenga’s units have been able to hit the ground running.

“I think we know their strengths and weaknesses, and know their personalities and what they like to kind of do and what they’re best at, and try to accentuate those things,” Mennenga said. “From that sense, it has been good. It’s getting the system in and they know our personalities and how we teach and coach. We’ve had more meeting time and we’ve had more walk-through time, and so we’ve been able to get things in over those meetings and walk-throughs and get the majority of our system put in, so now we’re fine-tuning those things. We just have some certain situational things to put in and things you don’t use as often. But I think we’re ahead as far as that goes just because we have had so much meeting time. Those guys are ready to get out on the field.”