This Packers Special Teams Coordinator Candidate Should Be On Top of List

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Special teams is about field position. No team flipped the field better on special teams this past season than the Super Bowl-champion Seattle Seahawks. Their excellence on special teams could have Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur honing in on the Seahawks’ assistant coordinator to replace Rich Bisaccia.

Devin Fitzsimmons just completed his second season as the right-hand man to highly regarded special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh.

In 2025, the Seahawks finished third in the Packers On SI NFL Special Teams Rankings. Our rankings focus primarily on field position. They would have been No. 1 overall had kicker Jason Myers had a little better season but settled for third because they finished:

14th in net punting average. The Seahawks finished 31st in yards allowed per punt return during the regular season but yielded just 1.3 yards per return in the playoffs.

3rd in opponent net punting average. The Seahawks were third in punt-return average.

1st in opponent starting field position after a kickoff. Seattle finished fourth in yards allowed per kickoff return.

3rd in starting position after a kickoff return. The Seahawks were third in kickoff-return average.

Winning the Field-Position Battle

“Hidden yards is all over the place, Fitzsimmons said on The Ross Tucker Football Podcast before the Super Bowl. “With the touchback now going to the 35 if the ball lands in the end zone, OK, you return it and you consistently tackle somebody at the 29 or 31, that's 4 less yards to 6 less yards. And it's not just that. Say we're kicking off and they don't return it; the ball hits and lands at the 20, that's 15 yards – that's a first-down-and-a-half.

“And then the hidden yards aren't just there. It's like you have a big return, but there's a penalty. And now instead of getting the ball at the plus-48, the opposing team – which happened in the Rams game, they had a block in the back and instead of starting at the 23, they're now starting at the 13. So, hidden yards, especially in a special teams world, is absolutely gigantic and it is tracked constantly.”

With Harbaugh and Fitzsimmons, Seattle finished third in DVOA in 2025 and 10th in 2024.

“I think Fitz also deserves a ton of credit. He kind of flies under the radar on a lot of things that he’s bringing to the table,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said last month.

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While the Packers’ special teams haven’t been a consistent positive contributor since 2007 – that was their last top-10 finish in Rick Gosselin’s expansive special teams rankings – Seattle’s group dominated the regular season and postseason.

“You just want to out-coach the other guy,” Fitzsimmons, a native of Folsom, Fa., told NOLA.com after the Super Bowl. “You just want your players to be like, ‘That’s exactly what we talked about.’ You just want them to know the look and beat the other coach. Winning the Super Bowl was a dream come true, but we know next season will be a new chapter.”

Fitzsimmons said Seattle’s success was guided by the coaches but driven by the players.

Bisaccia’s units never measured up during his four seasons, failing to crack the top half of our rankings in any season, but his personal touch with the players made him highly regarded. Perhaps Fitzsimmons would bring that, as well.

“The closer someone gets and the more you know somebody, indirectly you really want to do more for them because you know more about them and you care about them,” Fitzsimmons said. “Again, there is no employee number 38 or 21. No, those are people’s names, and you care about them.”

Potential Path to Packers

Fitzsimmons played quarterback and receiver at Bucknell. He got his start as a coach at Shaw University in 2005. His first NFL opportunity came as a quality-control coach on offense for the Colts in 2011. After being the special teams coordinator and tight ends coach at Delaware in 2013, he got his big NFL break as the assistant special teams coach for the Detroit Lions from 2014 through 2018.

After two seasons as the special teams coordinator and tight ends coach at Vanderbilt, he was hired as a special teams assistant for the Arizona Cardinals in 2021 and 2022 and the Carolina Panthers in 2023 before joining Macdonald’s first staff with the Seahawks in 2024.

Along the way, he’s learned from some of the best: Jeff Rodgers with the Cardinals, Chris Tabor with the Panthers and Harbaugh with the Seahawks.

“Devin Fitzsimmons, who just came aboard, he has about 10 years in the league and super-experienced, crazy-smart, awesome football coach,” Harbaugh said when the staff was formed. “So, really thankful to have him aboard to be able to help them that transition.”

Coaches on Matt LaFleur’s interview list include:

Tom McMahon

Cameron Achord

Kyle Wilber

Matthew Smiley

McMahon and Achord have been coordinators; so has Smiley, but he reportedly has taken a college position. Fitzsimmons would be a first-timer but his track record is strong and he’d bring a championship pedigree.

With Seattle, he had an elite returner with Rashid Shaheed. The Packers had arguably the worst return game in the NFL and have a question mark at kicker after Brandon McManus’ bad playoff game, but they have a strong punter and snapper with Daniel Whelan and Matt Orzech.

“Jay and Fitz (assistant special teams coach Devin Fitzsimmons), they are a driving force,” Macdonald said late in the season. “I love their mentality, I love how we coach them, I love how Jay and Fitz think about the game and how they try to position our players. It's our responsibility as coaches to give our guys advantages and Jay does is as good as anybody about doing that. I love how he coaches the guys too, about thinking outside the box, how we build our systems.”

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