Packers will benefit from veteran assistant hires in 2022
Sixty-six years. That is how many years of coaching experience that Rich Bisaccia and Tom Clements have combined. Bisaccia, who will be going into his first season as special teams coordinator for the Green Bay Packers, has been coaching football for 40 years. Clements, who will be entering his second stint with the Packers as QB Coach, has been coaching for 26 years.
Bisaccia started coaching in 1983 at Wayne State University. Over the next 18 years, he would go on to coach at schools such as South Carolina, Clemson, and Ole Miss. Starting in 2002, the Yonkers native would go on to coach in the NFL for teams like Tampa, San Diego, Dallas, Oakland/Las Vegas, and now Green Bay.
Throughout Bisaccia’s 40 years, he has coached all three phases of the game. The positions he has coached include: special teams, defensive backs, defensive ends, quarterbacks, tight ends, and wide receivers. He has also been a volunteer assistant, an assistant head coach and most recently, and interim head coach.
Bisaccia has proven to be one of the most versatile coaches in the history of football. The Packers’ special teams unit will benefit from that in a big way seeing as it was the worst overall unit in the league last season.
Clements, after playing in the Canadian Football League and being named a seven-time All-Star while winning two Grey Cups, started coaching in 1992 at Notre Dame.
He was the QB coach in South Bend for four seasons. He would then go on to become an offensive assistant in the NFL for 22 seasons with the Saints, Chiefs, Steelers, Bills, Packers, and Cardinals.
Predominantly an offensive coach, the Pennsylvania native has been a QB coach, passing game coordinator, and an offensive coordinator. His familiarity with the Green Bay Packers is a key reason why he and the Packers reached an agreement on a return.
From 2006-2016, Clements had a huge part in helping turn Aaron Rodgers into a first-ballot Hall-of-Fame QB as well as turning the Green Bay offense into one of the best in the game. The loss of OC Nathaniel Hackett to Denver is important, but the promotion of offensive line coach Adam Stenavich and hiring of Clements will help ease the blow.
The effects that Bisaccia, 61, and Clements, 68, will have on this Packers team will be huge. You can never underestimate how important experience is in not just the NFL, but sports as a whole.
The only major problem the Packers had last season was special teams. Bisaccia will turn this into a top-20 unit at the very least. Packers fans know that is a huge improvement. Clements will help fill the void that Hackett left while being able to possibly mix in some fresh, old concepts from the past Packers regime.
This Packers team is already in a better place because of these two hires. Bisaccia and Clements aren’t just experienced, but they are also leaders and extremely personable. There was a photo that surfaced of Bisaccia writing thank-you letters to each of his players and coaches after the Raiders came to the end of their season.
Aaron Rodgers has described Clements as a “father figure”. These two coaches are fantastic at what they do. Head coach Matt LaFleur and the Packers’ front office have done fantastic work to start this offseason.