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Since we’re all waiting on the news about Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur and whether he and the team can find a number that makes sense on an extension, I thought I’d make myself useful, take a break from the scrolling and talk about another member of the coaching staff. No, this time it’s not about the inexperienced true assistant pool. In this piece, I want to focus on veteran special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia, who has 20 years of non-Packers on-field NFL experience, compared to just 27 years for the rest of the coordinators/assistants on the team combined.
Here, I want to talk about what Bisaccia is or isn’t, to better explain his role on the team. Things get funky when you group up special teams as one collective unit instead of six different phases (kickoff, kickoff return, punt, punt return, field goal and field goal rush), which really tells the story of why the Packers (and members of other organizations around the league) think he’s doing well in Green Bay.
If you don’t believe me, former Packers player John Kuhn, who still lives in the area and works in media covering the team, spoke on how “everyone in that building believes in Rich Bisaccia” this week. Former Raiders general manager Mike Mayock, in an ESPN article covering the pitfalls of Pete Carroll’s one season with Las Vegas, said the following: “Had the Raiders kept Bisaccia after the 2021 season, they would be competing for divisional titles, not for the 1st pick in the draft.”
I know you’re bombarded with DVOA numbers about how the team ranked 21st in the NFL on special teams this year, but the real devil is in the details here. When you examine the splits by their six phases and the type of support the team provides to these phases through roster spots, the picture becomes clearer about what Bisaccia is or isn’t, as well as what the Packers expect or don’t expect out of special teams.
Let’s start off with the bad. The Packers do not care about the return game, and I don’t think they will as long as they’re a draft and develop program (and there’s not an appetite to change that in the building based on what I’ve been told). In kick returns, they finished 17th in DVOA in 2025, while being just 28th in punt returns.
Why do I say that they do not care to be good here? Because they do not invest here. While they weren’t bad with Savion Williams at kick returner this season, they certainly put no effort forward toward finding a punt returner (and haven’t in years). Having a punt return body on the roster is going to be difficult in the Matt LaFleur era, where his average receiver is around 208 pounds, and the NFL average punt returner is 5’9”, 183 pounds. I wrote about this back in August.
There are a couple of things to unpack...
