Will Green Bay Packers Utilize Starters More on Special Teams?

For the Green Bay Packers special teams unit to turn around, it is going to take an organizational shift in how the team views this phase of the game.

While last year’s special teams unit may have been the worst of the bunch, unfortunately, it’s not as if the Packers ranking 32nd in special teams play is anything new. Since 2018, the best this unit has been ranked at the end of a season is 26th, and since 2014, this group has finished last on three occasions by Rick Gosselin’s rankings.

Now, I will say that hiring an experienced coach like Rich Bisaccia is a step in the right direction, as is spending free agent dollars on Pat O’Donnell and Keisean Nixon, two special teams players that Bisaccia handpicked. Recently, Bisaccia would also tell reporters that he expects this draft class to contribute as well.

However, it could still require more to turn this unit around. A greater emphasis on special teams play is going to be needed in practice, and we may also see more starters taking special teams snaps than we have in years past.

Typically, a majority of those snaps are reserved for those back end of the roster players or backups, but as Bisaccia told reporters last week via Acme Packing Co, former cornerback Ronde Barber was playing on the kickoff unit, the field goal block team, and in punt coverage during his 17th NFL season. He would also add that it’s not out of the question to see a player like David Bakhtiari taking snaps on the field goal kicking team either.

Last season it’s not as if there weren’t any starters or those who saw significant playing time on the special teams unit. Preston Smith, Elgton Jenkins, Rashan Gary, Aaron Jones, and Kenny Clark all saw playing time, but it was fewer than 13 total snaps each.

Some of the higher snap count totals for key contributors were Lucas Patrick with 67, Rasul Douglas with 90, AJ Dillon with 91, Dean Lowry with 136, and Josiah Deguara with 141, according to PFF ($$). For some context, Oren Burks led the team in special teams snaps with 356.

Following the Green Bay Packers’ playoff loss against San Francisco, Matt LaFleur acknowledged that utilizing starters on special teams is something that Green Bay would look into more this offseason:

"“That’s gonna be something that I wanna do some studies around the league and see how many teams operate that way,” LaFleur said via PFT. “Does it have some inherent risk? Absolutely.”"

The injury risk is worrisome, and it is something that LaFleur will have to weigh when making that decision. We saw it in the playoff game against San Francisco when AJ Dillon had to leave the game after suffering broken ribs on a kick return. This, of course, ended up being a big loss for an offense that was already struggling to move the ball.

During Tuesday’s OTA practice, Matt Schneidman of The Athletic tweeted out that De’Vondre Campbell, Aaron Jones, and Adrian Amos were all “active participants in the special teams drills today.”

While, yes, it is only one OTA practice in late May, so this might not mean that these three are going to be mainstays on the special teams unit this season, but at a minimum, Bisaccia is going to have them ready to be if things go sideways.

With all of that said, it is still very early, and we have to see how things play out during training camp and the preseason, but the Green Bay Packers starters taking a more active role in special teams certainly seems like a path the team is willing to go down–the question becomes who is it going to be and how many more snaps are they going to take?