Acme Packing Company
I’m sure that the people who want special teams Rich Bisaccia fired won’t have their minds changed by this article. It won’t matter that I bring up that the Green Bay Packers ranked second in starting field position and fifth in opposing starting field position last year. In their minds, Bisaccia is a bust no matter what the data says. Special teams can only do bad, unless there’s a big return (something the Packers don’t seem to have interest in investing in — more on that later).
With that being said, Bisaccia’s units haven’t been good for the first four games of the year. On the subject of the field goal team, and really special teams personnel overall, though, I want to turn the gun to another target: head coach Matt LaFleur.
As someone with a little special teams experience (I coached and played it at the high school level and evaluated it as part of my time with the XFL), I’ve talked to a lot of special teams coaches over the years, at varying levels of the sport. One of the consistent pieces of advice that I received from successful special teams coaches is this: “Your primary job is convincing the head coach to let you use the best players on the team for the kicking game.”
Not too long ago, cornerback Richard Sherman was the jammer on the Seattle Seahawks’ punt return unit while also putting up All-Pro seasons on the defensive side of the ball. Now, LaFleur’s Packers won’t even let All-Pro returner Keisean Nixon, who also starts at cornerback, get time on punt return or kick return. Instead, Bisaccia’s units are using Matthew Golden, who hasn’t returned punts since high school, and Savion Williams, who hasn’t returned kicks since his true freshman season at TCU in 2020, as their main returners. Against the Cowboys, Golden was benched for Romeo Doubs, who got his first punt return opportunity in four years as an NFL player in Week 4.
There’s no doubt in my mind that not using Nixon is a call that LaFleur made, not Bisaccia. And I don’t think that Nixon is the only player who is being restricted by the head coach, either.
Just look at the field goal unit that the Packers fielded on Sunday for their blocked PAT against the Dallas Cowboys.
Going into Week 4’s action, Green Bay’s preferred field goal protection unit included Aaron Banks, Zach Tom and Anthony Belton, three offensive linemen who were out with injuries against Dallas, and tight end Tucker Kraft, who is often sidelined for a rest snap. Instead of bringing up Elgton Jenkins, who hadn’t played a snap of special teams in 2025, up on the field goal unit to start the game on Sunday, the Packers elected to use two backup tight ends and Brant Banks, an offensive lineman who was signed to the active roster from the practice squad just this week.
The result? Luke Musgrave, one of the backup tight ends playing...
