Packers: How will Rich Bisaccia improve the special teams?

The special teams woes of the Green Bay Packers have been well-documented for years.

It wasn’t until a blocked punt in last season’s NFC divisional round against the San Francisco 49ers that head coach Matt LaFleur and the Packers brass said enough was enough. The team let go of special teams coordinator Maurice Drayton after just one season.

LaFleur would bring in the big guns after the Pro Bowl. He convinced coaching legend Rich Bisaccia to be the new special teams coordinator in Green Bay after a solid interim head-coaching stint with Las Vegas, in which he guided the Raiders to the postseason while overcoming many obstacles off the field.

I can say with complete confidence that if there is one coach out there that can exponentially improve a struggling special teams unit, it’s the guy with 40 years of coaching experience.

Bisaccia has coached at both the college and pro level. The Packers will be his fifth NFL team in the last 20 years.

Coincidentally, Bisaccia was on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ coaching staff with current Packers defensive coordinator Joe Barry when Tampa won the Super Bowl in 2003. Bisaccia is without a doubt the man for the job.

He will be the biggest reason why every aspect of Green Bay’s special teams will improve tremendously.

Another reason why Green Bay will improve on special teams is because of their recent draft and overall offseason.

They added explosive linebacker/safety Tariq Carpenter, a big-bodied defensive tackle who will presumably be a disrupter on special teams in Jonathan Ford, free-agent punter Pat O’Donnell, free-agent cornerback Keisean Nixon, who played for Bisaccia in Las Vegas, and multiple others.

Rookie receivers Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs, who will have big roles in the offense, are also likely to have roles in the return game.

Both had plenty of return experience in college (three combined return touchdowns).

Veterans like linebacker Krys Barnes, wide receiver Malik Taylor, linebacker Ty Summers, wide receiver Amari Rodgers, linebacker Randy Ramsey, cornerback Shemar Jean-Charles, and running back Kylin Hill could all be expected to have important roles in both the return game and kick coverage.

Franchise legend Randall Cobb doesn’t have the speed that he once did, but he could play a reliable role as punt returner too.

Without a doubt, Bisaccia will have an eye on who he likes and will have them in the right spots.

During rookie mini-camp, Bisaccia had players in a drill working on their hand-eye coordination by catching tennis balls.

It’s an old strategy that will help train players in a new way. Improving in the smallest of skills will help improve the overall unit. Bisaccia knows what he is doing. Trust the process.

Going back to the return game, Green Bay made another interesting special teams hire. They hired former kick return star Micheal Spurlock to be their special teams quality control coach.

Spurlock was the first player to return a kick for a touchdown in Buccanneers history. He did that while Bisaccia was his ST coordinator in Tampa in 2007. Spurlock finished his nine-year NFL career with five career return touchdowns (three punt, two kick).

Between Spurlock, an electric returner in his career, and Bisaccia, a long-time ST coordinator who has coached nearly every position in football, the return game should improve mightily.

In terms of the field goal struggles, the signing of Pat O’Donnell, who is going to be a good punter for the Packers, will be help Mason Crosby get back to his usual clutch self.

O’Donnell was a holder and punter in Chicago, a cold-weather city, for eight seasons. He, unlike Corey Bojorquez, will be able to get snaps down in the cold and set up Crosby for straightforward kicks.

He will also quickly adapt to punting at Lambeau Field and should become better than Bojorquez ever was for the Packers.

Hopefully, second-year long snapper Steven Wirtel will have an improved season snapping the ball too. He’ll be more familiar with snapping in a windy, cold-weather town like Green Bay.

Bisaccia will have this unit in a much better place. If he can turn Green Bay into a middle-of-the-pack special teams unit at the very least, this team will be in the Super Bowl in Arizona next February.

With the QB they have, their solid skill-position players, an elite defense and a much-improved special teams unit, the Packers are going to go farther than the NFC Championship Game this season.