The NFL season is a third of the way complete. The Packers avenged themselves by getting back in the win column over the Joe Flacco-led Cincinnati Bengals. With this win, the Packers are now on a “1.5 game” winning streak!
In the five-game sample, the criticism has landed exclusively on Matt LaFleur’s offensive staleness. Despite criticism of the head coach’s passiveness, Jordan Love and the Pack performed well the past two weeks. It’s the the special teams that’s in desperate need of demolition and redesign.
Who is Rich Bisaccia?
Rich Bisaccia is Green Bay’s Special Teams Coordinator. The Packers are Rich Bisaccia’s ninth team in a career that spans over 40 years. He is no stranger to special teams, as this is his fifth time securing the role at the NFL level. Bisaccia led the Las Vegas Raiders to a 7-5 record and the playoffs as interim head coach. The Raiders lost to the Bengals in the Wild Card round, and Bisaccia was replaced the following season.
Bisaccia signed with the Packers in 2022, with extensions through 2026. On paper, his tenure with the Pack has been good, thanks to the extensions. Well, stats don’t lie.
Bisaccia’s best special teams season was in Tampa Bay, ranking No. 2 in his eighth year per Gosselin’s rankings. Over his next 14 seasons, though, he would never reach that height again. Bisaccia reached the top five in special teams rankings thrice, averaging 14th over his NFL career.
Bisaccia’s Costly Characteristic
Recent special teams lowlights include a blocked field goal against the Browns and an opening kickoff fumble in the 2024 playoffs against the Eagles. These are just some of the miscues under Bisaccia’s reign. Every game seems to feature mistake after mistake, and it’s become a pattern.
Since the departure of Mason Crosby, the Packers have had a trio of kickers: Anders Carlson, Brayden Narveson, and Brandon McManus (and Lucas Havrisik in McManus’s interim). In August 2024, GM Brian Gutekunst cut Greg Joseph and Carlson, choosing Narveson, citing impatience with specialists.
So why has he been SO patient with Bisaccia? As of Week 4, the Packers had the worst special teams in the league. The last three seasons haven’t been much better.
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Time to Pull the Plug
The new management in Green Bay has proved to take big swings. Getting Micah Parsons was something one could only dream of in the Mark Murphy days. With that trade, the Packers’ defense is now top three in points allowed and top five overall.
New President of the club, Ed Policy, cannot make a gigantic swing like Parsons and then strike out looking with a ST coordinator who has shown his product to be unreliable. Additionally, Bisaccia is the associate head coach.
Packers fans should be grilling LaFleur about why he asked Bisaccia with milliseconds to go before the snap whether he should take a timeout to ice Bengals kicker Evan McPherson and end the half.
Special teams coaches, who cannot even coach their unit adequately, shouldn’t be next in line for the head coaching position. There’s no more time to work through things. No more time for the coach to make blanket statements, not with Super Bowl aspirations. The Green and Gold has to make the move and move on from Rich Bisaccia.
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