History, Challenge and Finalists as Packers Hire Special Teams Coordinator

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur has chosen Cam Achord to be the team’s new special teams coordinator, the team announced on Friday. He will be charged with fixing a chronically broken special teams that couldn’t be rescued by Rich Bisaccia.

Achord led the New England Patriots’ special teams from 2020 through 2023. He was not retained in the coaching transition from Bill Belichick to Jerod Mayo, so spent the last two seasons as the assistant with the Giants.

Achord was one of at least five candidates who had a second interview for the Packers this week.

Cam Achord’s Resume

Belichick promoted Achord to special teams coordinator after his former coordinator, Joe Judge, was named head coach of the Giants in 2020. Achord got a strong endorsement from their legendary special teams player, Matthew Slater.

“Assuming that’s the direction Bill (Belichick) wants to go, I’m really confident in Cam,” Slater told The Athletic at the time. “He is a bright young coach who really relates well to the players but has the players’ respect.

"I think he did a great job this year. He had some added responsibility. I think he did a great job of handling it. Conceptually, he understands how the team wants to play. He understands the skill sets the players have and putting them in position to have success. He did a good job of learning from Joe and Bill. I think he is equipped to do the job if his number gets called.”

During his debut season, New England’s special teams finished No. 1 in Rick Gosselin’s annual special teams ranking and No. 4 in Packers On SI’s rankings.

He was unable to keep the Patriots on top, though. In Gosselin’s rankings, the Patriots fell to 18th in 2021, 16th in 2022 and 13th in 2023.

By DVOA, New England was first in 2020, 18th in 2021, 32nd in 2022 and 28th in 2023. The Patriots in 2021 gave up three blocked punts. In 2022, they gave up a pair of kickoff-return touchdowns in a late-season game against Buffalo.

It’s worth noting that the Patriots’ kickoff coverage rebounded to sixth in 2023. Plus, they were No. 3 in kickoff returns in 2023.

“This is not on Coach at all,” Slater said in 2021 on the Mut at Night radio show. “I think this is on us as players. It’s not like we’re going out there and getting outschemed or being put in a bad position. He prepares us. We know what to expect. And it’s really about us executing better. This is not coaching at all. I think Cam and Joe [Houston] do a great job of having us ready, having us prepared. We feel confident going into every contest, but they can’t go out there and play. They can’t coach and play. The players have to do their job and let the coaches do theirs.”

As assistant with the Giants, New York in the Packers On SI rankings finished 20th in 2024 and ninth in 2025. By DVOA, the Giants were 22nd in 2024 and 23rd in 2025.

Other Candidates

Coach Matt LaFleur had second interviews this week. According to a source, they included:

Achord.

Ex-New England Patriots special teams coordinator Cameron Achord against the Arizona Cardinals in 2022. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Chase Blackburn, a former NFL linebacker who was fired as the Rams’ coordinator late this past season.

Devin Fitzsimmons, who was an assistant for the Seahawks’ powerhouse special teams.

Sam Sewell, an assistant for the Cardinals and the son of a former NFL running back.

Colt Anderson, who was an assistant for the 49ers in 2025 after leading the Titans’ woeful special teams in 2024.

Nowhere To Go But Up (Almost)

There were sky-high expectations for the Packers’ special teams when LaFleur hired Bisaccia in 2022. After all, Green Bay’s special teams had been terrible for more than a decade, highlighted – the wrong choice of a word – by the 2021 playoff debacle against San Francisco in which the Packers gave up a game-tying blocked punt and had only 10 players on the field for the deciding field goal.

Bisaccia’s track record was impressive, to say the least, and he had a history of being a turnaround artist.

It didn’t happen with the Packers, though. In the Packers On SI NFL Special Teams rankings, Green Bay finished 17th in 2022, 27th in 2023, 22nd in 2024 and 20th in 2025. That is zero top-half-of-the-league finishes.

While punter Daniel Whelan had an All-Pro caliber season, the Packers finished 23rd in kickoff-return average and 32nd in punt-return average. The coverage units were strong throughout the regular season, finishing 14th in kickoff-return average and 18th in punt-return average, and kicker Brandon McManus was perfect down the stretch after a midseason injury.

However, when the Packers made mistakes, they were colossal. The Packers allowed a blocked field goal against Cleveland, which turned a potential game-winning kick into a walk-off loss. A week later, they allowed a blocked extra point against Dallas that turned the tide of a tie. In Week 16 at Chicago, Romeo Doubs – who had been impeccable fielding punts – botched the onside kick.

And, finally, in the playoff loss at Chicago, the punt unit gave up returns of 37 and 22 yards. And McManus, who entered the game having made 32 consecutive kicks, missed two field goals and one extra point. The Bears turned the second long punt return into a field goal and McManus left seven points on the field. They were killer errors in a 31-27 loss.

Longtime NFL writer Rick Gosselin stopped doing his extensive special teams rankings after he retired following the 2023 season. From 2005, the first season of the Ted Thompson era, through 2023, the Packers had only one top-10 finish (2007) and finished last four times.

Challenge of Replacing Rich Bisaccia

A couple weeks after the season, general manager Brian Gutekunst offered a hearty endorsement for the 65-year-old Bisaccia.

“What Rich brings to our culture, this football team, he’s a very impactful coach around here,” Gutekunst said. “Certainly, I thought we’ve been better on teams the last few years than we’ve been in a long time. Our cover units have been better, we’ve got one of the best punters in the National Football League, got an excellent snapper (with Matt Orzech). Brandon (McManus) was excellent last year. This year again he worked through some things injury-wise and then had a bad playoff game. That was kind of how that ended.

“No, 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.”

Instead, Bisaccia caught the Packers by surprise when he decided to step down after four years on the job. There was no mention of the word “retire” in the statement released by the Packers and Bisaccia, and Gutekunst at the Scouting Combine this week said “there’s other opportunities” that Bisaccia wanted to pursue.

Bisaccia’s late decision meant a diluted class of former coordinators for LaFleur to sort through following a game of musical chairs following the annual hiring and firing of head coaches. The best landed on their feet.

That includes Michael Ghobrial, who was Achord’s boss with the Giants. He is the new coordinator for the Cardinals, who are coached by Mike LaFleur, the brother of Matt LaFleur.

“I think I look at it kind of glass half full,” Gutekunst said at the Scouting Combine. “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.

“Right now, we don’t have a lot of competition so Matt’s taking his time, being really thorough. The candidates that he’s bringing in, I’m pretty excited about. 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.”

With that, LaFleur’s 2026 coaching staff is mostly squared away. While there might be another low-level assistant announced in the coming days, including perhaps on special teams, all the main characters are in place.

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