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The Green Bay Packers are playing some inexperienced players at the returner spots, but don’t expect that to change anytime soon. In his Tuesday press conference, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur stated that his young returners, kick returner Savion Williams and punt returner Matthew Golden, “give us the best chance to be successful.”
I don’t think LaFleur is telling the truth here, but we’ll get into that later. When pressed on if LaFleur’s team is simply giving these opportunities to young players who are taking their lumps, he walked back his previous statement, saying, “I think so. You got to get experience one way or the other. They do a great job in practice. I get it, game’s a little bit different than practice, especially when you’re catching kicks because in practice nobody’s going to blow you up.”
Williams, who was injured during the entire preseason — the only time the Packers had live reps for special teams this summer — hasn’t returned kicks since his true freshman season at TCU back in 2020. Green Bay used Israel Abanikanda and Corey Ballentine, two players who aren’t even on their practice squad in 2025, as their kick returners in the preseason.
So far, Williams’ reps have been rough. Take a look at them yourself:
On 10 attempts, Williams has only broken the 30-yard line, around the NFL average for the play, just once, without the play being flagged. He was tackled by a kicker on the opening kickoff of the season, a play that might have had a chance to be a touchdown if not for a penalty. He also returned the ball from an end zone, which would have given the Packers a 35-yard touchback, and failed to cross the 30-yard line.
Against the Dallas Cowboys, though, Williams’ youth at the position was really exposed. Kicker Brandon Aubrey kicked three balls just short of the end zone, each of which Williams kneeled for a 20-yard touchback, which LaFleur described as equivalent to losses of at least 10 yards in the team’s mind. “We got to field those. We have got to make every attempt to at least catch those in the air,” stated the head coach.
Nowhere to be seen is All-Pro kick returner Keisean Nixon, who earlier this summer stated that he was willing to return kicks for the 2025 team. He frequently worked in at the position for Green Bay in camp, unlike the injured Williams, but the Packers seem hellbent on giving Williams a role on special teams that will justify him being active on the 48-man gameday roster beyond just being a gadget player for LaFleur’s offense.
Now let’s talk about punt returner. Golden hasn’t returned punts since at least high school, as he didn’t record a single rep there during his days at Houston or Texas in college.
Instead of getting Golden reps in the preseason, the Packers only used receivers Mecole Hardman and Will Sheppard as punt returners during live action this summer. Sheppard...
