The special teams for the Green Bay Packers under head coach Matt LaFleur have been a sore spot, to put it lightly. Case in point, the Packers have never ranked in the top 20 in Rick Gosselin’s special teams rankings since LaFleur took over in 2019, finishing 26th in 2019, 29th in 2020, 32nd in 2021, and 22nd in 2022. (Gosselin has ranked all 32 units after each season based on various special teams categories for the past 40+ years.)

However, last season’s performance under special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia was filled with bright spots that could bode well for the future. The unit finished 17th in DVOA, the best ranking of LaFleur’s tenure, and improved in the areas of kickoff return coverage – 26th in 2021 to 21st in 2022 – and punt return coverage, going from worst to 21st. Moreover, the punt defense finished tied for 7th in pressure rate in 2022, tallying six pressures in 60 punts by their opponents, according to Next Gen Stats (via ESPN’s Seth Walder). 

Cowboys blew away the league in pressuring opponents' punts last year, via @NextGenStats. pic.twitter.com/B9E9tWBGtF

— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) July 13, 2023

Best of all was the emergence of first-team All-Pro honoree Keisean Nixon, who led the league in kickoff return yards with 1,009 yards and was second in average yards per kickoff return (28.83 yards). Had he qualified with the requisite number of returns, he also would have led the league in average yards per punt return at 12.7 yards per return.

One area that must get cleaned up, though, is the unit’s punt protection. On 54 punt attempts, the unit allowed 11 pressures and two blocked punts, per Next Gen Stats (via Walder). The 20.4% pressure rate was tops in the NFL by 3.5 percentage points. To show how bad the Packers’ protection was in 2022 compared to the rest of the league, the difference between the Buffalo Bills, ranked 10th-worst, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, ranked third-worst, was four percent. The punt protection unit's two blocked punts allowed were tied for the most allowed in the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams. 

Here's the inverse. Pressure rate allowed from the punting team's perspective. pic.twitter.com/MuxxFjiqNu

— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) July 13, 2023

The high pressure rate might be one of the reasons why punter Pat O’Donnell finished 31st, out of 36, in net yards per punt as he may have been affected by the walls closing in on him more than 20 percent of the time. Regardless, how can a unit be that bad at protecting the punter? Generally speaking, it is either due to missed assignments, which may include a protector not holding his block long enough or not chipping a defender properly, or at least one of the protectors simply getting beat. The pressure generated against a punter can rarely be attributed to the punter if he is rhythm unless he mishandles the snap. 

For example, during the Packers’ Week 6 matchup against the New York Jets, the unit had five protectors at the line of scrimmage, three players behind them that somewhat formed a small triangle, and two gunners on the outside. 

It is difficult to exactly ascertain the responsible Packers’ player, but the replay appears to show him engaging with defensive tackle Michael Clemons on the right side and then moving on to a different interior lineman to his left. That allowed a clear path for Clemons to block the punt, which was scooped up and returned for a touchdown to give the Jets a 17-3 lead. Was the aforementioned Green Bay player supposed to keep his block for longer, or was he supposed to get help from another protector? Either way, a costly miscue occurred. 

The Packers brought in punter Daniel Whelan to compete with O’Donnell and signed long-snapper Matt Orzech, who they attempted to claim via the waiver wire in May 2021, to a three-year deal ($300k signing bonus) during the offseason. 

"Whelan averaged 4.74 seconds of hangtime compared to 4.20 for O’Donnell. O’Donnell’s best had 4.80 of hangtime; Whelan beat that on his last four."

I'm pretty sure Daniel Whelan is the best punter on the #Packers roster. https://t.co/DBoi0xx8z8

— Wendell Ferreira (@wendellfp) June 15, 2023

Packers signed 3 players from the rookie minicamp tryout group:

LS Broughton Hatcher
CB William Hooper
DL Antonio Moultrie

They released last year's snapper, Jack Coco. Hatcher will compete with veteran Matt Orzech, who got a $300K signing bonus and is still the favorite.

— Rob Demovsky (@RobDemovsky) May 8, 2023

Altogether, the team either signed or re-signed several players during the offseason strictly for special teams purposes. Who knows whether any of them will move the needle regarding punt protection, but something has to give for that area to improve in 2023.