4 Concerns for Green Bay Packers Entering Playoffs
By Paul Bretl
Concern No. 2 for the Green Bay Packers: Special Teams
You name it, and the Green Bay Packers special teams unit has probably had issues with it this season.
In short, we’ve seen muffed punts, poor returns — both on kick and punt return attempts — bad blocking, inconsistent snaps, missed field goals, shanked punts, a punt return allowed for a touchdown, poor holds, penalties, and I’m sure several other things I forgot to mention.
In fact, there was a two-game stretch against Chicago and Baltimore where the Green Bay Packers special teams unit had more errors than what some teams will have in an entire season. Not to mention that in two of Green Bay’s losses — against Kansas City and Minnesota — we can point to the special teams unit as a big reason why.
Green Bay enters the playoffs with their special teams unit ranked 31st by PFF’s metrics and 32nd by Football Outsiders. If you’re looking for some optimism, they have been better over the last few games, with the field goal operation looking much more smooth and the addition of David Moore looks like it has given the return units a boost as well.
But with that said, this certainly isn’t a unit that can be trusted–at least not based on everything we’ve seen this season. In the playoffs, a team’s weaknesses are magnified, and if the special teams unit has performances like it did against Chicago, Baltimore, Kansas City, or Cincinnati, it could absolutely be a reason that the Packers are sent home early.