Green Bay Packers Special Teams Unit on a Rapid Decline

After largely going unnoticed at the beginning of the season, since facing Houston, the Green Bay Packers’ special teams unit has been on a rapid decline.

The special teams unit in football is one of those aspects of the game that you really don’t notice until things are going bad. And for the first five games of the Green Bay Packers’ season, we didn’t really notice their special teams unit. They didn’t do anything great, but they didn’t do anything egregious either.

However, beginning in Houston, that all changed. And for the worse. Since then, this unit has been on a rapid decline, with inexcusable blunders becoming an almost weekly occurrence.

Against the Texans, there was the blocked punt where Dexter Williams missed his block. A few weeks later, Keelan Cole of the Jacksonville Jaguars would return a punt for a touchdown. The following week in Indianapolis, Darrius Shepherd fumbled a kickoff return, and just this past Sunday, Jalen Reagor returned another punt for a touchdown.

On top of that, there has been an extra-point missed by the usually reliable Mason Crosby in each of the last two games, several penalties, and J.K. Scott’s net average of 36.6 yards is the worst in football. Not to mention that getting a kickoff return past the 25-yard line is nearly impossible.

Did I miss anything? Chances are I did, but you get the point. It hasn’t been good.

Overall by Pro Football Focus’ ($) grading system, the Green Bay Packers’ special team unit ranks 23rd in the NFL this season. Honestly, that’s better than what I expected, given the severity of their mishaps. You simply can’t be turning the ball over or allowing touchdowns as often as the Packers have over the last six weeks.

Moving forward, special teams coach Shawn Mennenga needs to have a concrete plan in place on how he is going to fix this unit. We hope that the addition of Tavon Austin will provide the punt return unit and maybe the kick return unit with a boost, and I don’t think anyone is too terribly worried about Crosby. But as for the coverage teams and Scott, well, that remains to be seen.

By no means does this unit have to great; that isn’t the case at all. They just need to stop getting in their own way and giving up game-changing plays with regularity–especially when playoff time rolls around. A fumble or a punt return housed for six points could be the difference between winning and losing the game.

The Packer offense continues to be one of the best in the NFL, the defense appears to have turned a corner in recent weeks, but the special teams unit is trending in the wrong direction. And it’s doing so very quickly.

"“It’s always a concern when you’re giving up big plays like that,” Matt LaFleur told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I think it’s just like any other phase. You need every player doing their responsibility and if you don’t get that done, bad things typically happen. It’s just one of those deals where it’s going to take all 11 and it starts on that (Jalen Reagor) punt.”"