For years, Green Bay Packers fans and analysts urged head coach Matt LaFleur to pull the plug on special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia. His reputation as a special teams guru made him a great hire at the time, but he failed to fix one of the league's worst special teams units.
Those fans finally got their wish on Tuesday night when ESPN's Rob Demovsky reported that Bisaccia "has stepped down" from his position.
"After taking some time to reflect over the last few weeks, I have made the decision to step down as the assistant head coach and special teams coordinator of the Green Bay Packers... I would like to thank everyone in the organization for their dedication and commitment. The people in this building make it a special place to work."Rich Bisaccia
Having Bisaccia leave would've been great news weeks ago. Now, with most teams already filling their coaching staffs and the Cleveland Browns stealing assistant special teams coordinator Byron Storer, Bisaccia chose the absolute worst time to leave.
Rich Bisaccia's Departure Leaves the Packers in a Tough Spot
The fact that Bisaccia said that he was stepping down instead of retiring hints at something else happening behind closed doors. Perhaps he was forced to walk away, which, again, would've made perfect sense given the terrible job he did, but they should've done that at the end of the season, not in mid-February.
There won't be many — if any — high-end options to replace him at this point in the offseason. And even though the bar isn't high at all, this team should've strived to find an actual special teams guru to get the team out of the mess Bisaccia got them into.
This is yet another example of poor management. The Packers waited 20 days to announce that both LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst had signed contract extensions, despite reports about it having floated for weeks. Now, nearly 40 days later, they will be in the market for another special teams coordinator.
As an assistant head coach, Bisaccia was one of LaFleur's inner circle guys. He was one of his confidants, which is why it's hard to believe he had anything to do with this decision, especially after losing Storer as well.
Whoever gets the nod will have plenty of heavy lifting to do to fix that unit. According to DVOA rankings, Bisaccia's units ranked 17th, 31st, 15th, and 21st throughout his four years with the team. That's an average of 21st, and that type of inconsistency and variations between seasons was a major headache. Those units usually did well in coverage but struggled in every other aspect of the game.
The Packers are knocking on the door of Super Bowl contention. They have almost everything they need to get back to the big game for the first time in 15 years. However, history has shown that true contenders need to dominate all three facets of the game to go the distance, so the Packers can't afford to have their special teams unit hold them back for longer.
Only time will tell if Green Bay can squash those concerns before they worsen, or if special teams will be a consistent source of headaches again throughout the 2026 season.