MLF plans to "research" what other teams are doing regarding use of starters on st. It is usually many years between product r &d and successful product launch.

Nailed it Bruce.

You do make some excellent points. I hope I won't be abused to bring up some others.
If Amari Rodgers (3rd round) had been as good at returning kicks as many anticipated, the ST ratings would be higher.
If the change in long snapper hadn't caused several missed field goals, the rating would be higher.
If Dillon (starter) hadn't broken a rib blocking on kick return, he may have helped run out the clock and the punt block probably wouldn't happen.

Start with the Gunners. Those who can play gunner. Are the guys for your Special teams. Lineman don't work. Slow TEs should be cut. I don't care how well they block.

If the Packers can land a proven veteran Special Teams Coach, he can change that culture.
At least 6 things must happen to achieve this.

1. He has to be a strong enough presence to lobby for certain players come draft and cut down time.

2. He must articulate to his head coach and GM the type of players he needs to succeed.

3. He has to be a strong enough presence to lobby for certain veterans to play special teams.

4. He has to be schematically sound, many times last season players were lining up incorrectly or were unsure of their assignment. This is unacceptable.

5. He must have the full confidence and of his head coach and players to be full out aggressive as a unit on returns, blocks, fakes etc…

6. He must emphasize physical, smart play, yet clean technique to keep penalties at a minimum.

Change the culture and you can change the results.

INTPS……………..It’s Not The Players Stupid……..!

The first time I saw Mo on the sidelines, he was shuffling paperwork and hollering in a near panic trying to get 11 players on the field. It looked to me like he was in over his head.

Agree, a team is only as strong as weakest link and this year's team was strong enough on offense and defense to overcome the special teams weakness. Except when the offense has a meltdown. And how ironic that the idea of using starters on ST resulted in the loss of Dillon who just might have been the cure for those disastrous 3 and outs. It's been a rough 3 years of watching this storied franchise come up short through poor execution.

Thank you Bruce Irons for an excellent article. I would add one more element to the "Packers don't value special teams" bonfire. MLF wanted to hire an outstanding special teams coach in Darren Rizzi and got push back front the Front Office (Rizzi was too expensive). So MLF had to settle for a lesser and less expensive choice (Mennenga). What a message to send to your first year head coach!

Maybe the fact that special teams were largely responsible for the demise of this year's "all-in" team will be a wake up call to the Front Office. If they want a different result, they will need to reprioritize special teams, starting with the special team's coach and extending through the draft and through practice structure. The draft should be a leading indicator of any changes in philosophy.

I always suspected it was due to lack of practice. Then Bruce brought up the good point of using players not accustomed to blocking. So it's kind of a double tap situation. Using players that need even more practice.

I place more blame on MLF than the position coach, especially since the ST performance in the playoff game was not a surprise. Clearly, something needed to be adjusted, but MLF ignored every warning and failure.

Every team prioritizes offense and defense. Special teams was terrible against SF. But the fact that the offense couldn't score a single TD after the first drive is the bigger issue in my opinion.

I’m waiting to hear from 13timesachump only his opinion counts here .

So, we have poor special teams. And we won lots of games. Gosh….could that possibly mean that having highly rated special teams isn’t that important?

Just like shutting down the run?
Or having a bevy of superduper WRs?

Just a thought.

Things won't change? Well, they better if they're considering hiring one of the top available coaches mentioned in an earlier video, because they probably wouldn't take a job where they have no input and are forced to work with ineffective "leftovers" or players unsuited to their positions.

And you can find competent, multi-talented players who can fill roles on offense, defense, and special teams. But you obviously have to give these players strong consideration when drafting or acquiring them by other means. It's not that difficult--you just have to want to do it! In the latter part of the draft, look for WRs and safeties (that would be a good start) instead of getting carried away with project offensive linemen--we have enough of them now.

So we really need the Packers' front office to finally address this situation instead of futzing around with the usual half-ass solutions. If they haven't gotten the message that special teams can destroy the best laid plans yet, then they never will and deserve whatever costs come with it.

Excellent article Bruce. Thanks for the insight.

If the HC and FO don’t make this a priority, they will be doomed to reliving the disaster that was the 2021 Special teams.

I think that Mo was a great teacher. He just was not a great coach. He would make a good assistant. A coach is more than a great teacher. He has to be able to see flaws BEFORE they happen and have a plan to overcome them. I liked Mo as a person and he was dealt a crap hand with the players he was given. Yet I think that a great coach would have found a way to mitigate it.

Just for fun, how about two words to stir up the fans today? Cordarrelle Patterson

Need a special teams core. Think 1996, Harris, Hollinquest, Thomason, Jervey, Prior, McKenzie. Tweeners tend to be the guys, big receivers, unskilled running backs and fullbacks, linebackers, undersized edge rushers, big but slower safeties. Players that rarely play 50% of snaps on offense or defense. Bellichek keeps a few extra of these guys around, Georger Allen did the same as the first head coach to prioritize special teams. And when Holmgren did it, special teams were a serious strength.

Nailed it on the blocking issue. Tight ends and fullbacks are needed on punt blocking and O-linemen on the place kicking teams. But to do this means a few roster priority changes. Older tight ends have to play suicide suqads or go, need more linebackers on the roster. Reconsider older backup edge rushers unless they play special teams. Backup receivers and running backs on special teams. Consider a fullback on the roster. And this takes the practice adjustment mentioned.

For some reason, I'm thinking 1996. Weird.

MLF needs to research George Allen’s thoughts on Special Teams when he was announced the HC of Washington. Murphy having played for Washington after all.

Felt the urge to sign up as a first time commenter to respond to this excellent piece by Bruce!
I was concerned before the SF game with all the talk about re-activating Cobb, Mercilus, and Z. Who was going to go?? We found out - Yiadom cut, Summers not re-activated, Moore not brought up. Cobb seemed to be subbed in for Keke. Yiadom and Summers, core special teamers all year who are bad on defense gone for Z and Mercilus to play limited snaps on defense. What could go wrong? We saw it. Oh I'll grant that they would not have helped keep kicks from being blocked. No reason for starting O linemen like Turner not to block for FGs though IMO. Not much injury risk, just takes them away from offensive practice, as Bruce astutely noted. But just maybe those 2 would have prevented the 50 yd Samuel Kick return setting up the FG after the half. More to the point who replaces them on kick coverage? Well AJ Dillon has nice attributes to do that dirty work. But he gets injured and can't help you get first downs needed in the second half to keep the lead. Which is why you don't use key guys on kick coverage, but when you remove 2 of your core players someone has to do it. And Moore was clearly more natural at returning punts than AmRod. Maybe he would have given them some field position too.
Thought on Mo's struggles - Coldworld is right about concern with MLF loyalty mimicking MM. I get it MLF doesn't want to embarrass Mo firing him mid-year and also admit his own mistake in hiring him. But some commenter (sorry I don't recall who) suggested mid-year hiring a proven retired college or pro ST coach to replace MO. A smoother approach would have been to hire one as a ST special consultant and tell Mo to listen to him and do whatever he said. Or just put the new guy in charge while letting Mo keep the title but essentially function as the new guy's assistant. Maybe he'd have learned something he never did from Mennenga and been ok to keep. Ot otherwise move on like they have. Sure it would have cost some change to add a ST consultant. Would Murphy have said NO like he did with Rizzi? We'll never know. But it all ties in with what Bruce said about not prioritizing STs.
Another thought - IMO Bojo got better at his holds the second half of the year (dreadful at first). Bradley was erratic with his snaps, and Wirtel more consistent. But Wirtel's snaps were usually at Bojo's chin, which doesn't seem ideal. With other teams the snaps are usually 1-2 feet off the ground in front of the knee so the ball can be caught, spun, and placed down in the right spot. Almost automatic. Maybe the snap at the chin is what Wirtel was taught, I know nothing about the technique but it seemed odd. Anyone else notice this and know more about proper snapping technique.
Also, Janis was absolutely a great gunner. 90% of the time first one down on punts and stopped 1 foot in front of the returner to legally distract them waiting for a fair catch. Also not a bad kickoff returner, and at end arounds (though we only saw it in pre-season it seemed). Can't believe the Pack did not value that kind of player, but then again, maybe ST really are not as important as we think. No other team valued him either :)

I thought the title was funny, but the content was better. Nice article.

The STs thing is extremely fresh in our minds following a terrible year and the loss to the Niners, rightfully so, but like Bruce I don't seeing it being fixed anytime soon. With the salary cap in total disarray we'll have more problems than ST in 2022. Linebackers, receivers, and maybe QB.
Until we get a CEO that prioritizes football over real estate and theme parks there's a chance we could be unhappy for a long time.
Remember, everyone now individually answers to Murphy, the same scenario Ron Wolf turned down in the mid 80's.

Bruce, after much consideration of this very good article, I finally understand that what you call special teams “failures “ I see as the cost of doing business. Returns, penalties, injuries, turnovers, blocked or shanked punts, missed field goals, fakes, onside kicks……..you can’t just coach it all away, you can’t personnel it away. It’s going to happen, just like getting boned by the refs is going to happen.

There used to be a guy, the Tuesday Morning Quarterback, who would recap multiple special teams “failures” across the league each week.

I’d also like to see how strong the correlation is between these special teams rankings and winning records. And I don’t fully agree with PFFs measurements, either. In 2020, we didn’t miss one single field goal, and yet there’s no real difference in the rankings? How?

I agree with the decision to not risk injury to key personnel. I think the cost/benefit on that is clear.

I think the best way to keep your special teams from hurting you, or costing you a game, is to invoke the Leatherhead Rules, , which I’ve detailed here many times. Some stuff will still go wrong, but the more you can do to minimize the impact of special teams , the better.

Thanks for the response.

Teams aren’t kicking through the end zone anymore, they’re kicking short and forcing you to catch and return. The strategic calculation is that you’ll screw it up more often than you’ll get a long return.

Never return a punt. Better to let it hit the ground than turn it over. Guard against fakes always and try to pressure the punter into a poor punt. Fair catch.

If we went through an entire season with 0 return yards…. Or turnovers….I’d be happy.