Special teams continues to be the main news around the Green Bay Packers. After Rich Bisaccia supposedly (insert your choice: stepped down from/walked out on/quit on/was fired from/was encouraged to leave) the Packers on February 17th, it didn't take long for them to hire a replacement. Sam Achord, a one-time special teams coordinator for the Patriots and most recently, an assistant special teams coach with the Giants, was Matt LaFleur's choice to take over the task of improving the Packers' special teams operation.
As I'm sure you have read by now, Achord was promoted to the top job in New England by Bill Belichick and had instant success, garnering the top spot in Rich Gosselin's annual special teams rankings in his first season there. They fell precipitously in the following seasons with various theories as to who is to blame. Of course, the buck stops at the coordinator level (don't we know that well, Packers fans), but there are dissenting opinions. The most interesting one comes from the Patriots' Matthew Slater, one of the best special team aces in the history of the NFL. Slater is on record stating that the special teams falloff was not on the coaching staff at all, but rather on the failure of players to execute.
An interesting fact that I just learned was that the Patriots had the top punting and punt return unit in the league during Achord's time there. While we're pretty set with our punter and the punt coverage unit has been good, we all know the level of mediocrity we have witnessed from the punt return unit. Can we hope that Achord improves that unit for the Packers? I guess it depends if the Packers actually find a returner who actually has some punt return ability. More than anything, that would require an organizational shift in philosophy, so don't hold your breath.
Without exonerating Rich Bisaccia, you can certainly draw a parallel from what Slater had to say to some of what happened to the Packers this year. If Romeo Doubs handles that onside kick, the Packers likely are division champs and their wild card weekend game is at Lambeau Field. If McManus makes his field goals in the playoff game (as Chicago's kicker did), the Packers win and advance in the playoffs. I could grouse about linemen not doing their jobs blocking for field goals earlier in the season that cost the Packers two wins and a comfortable clinching of a division championship, etc., etc. Well, you probably don't want to hear this, but Bisaccia was not on the field for those gaffes.
As I mentioned last week, my feeling is that Bisaccia felt hamstrung by some of the limitations imposed on him both by personnel decisions and in-game availability decisions. Brian Gutekunst gave one player on the roster to Bisaccia exclusively for special teams ability and has shown little interest in rostering a real kick returner. It took two blocked field goal disasters before Matt LaFleur allowed the use of more starting linemen on that unit. I believe Rich Bisaccia became a very frustrated man and the timing of his leaving tells me in the weeks worth of meetings since the season ended, he didn't see anything to indicate a change in the Packers' approach.
To make matters worse the majority of writers, media pundits, analysts and especially fans out there were pointing the finger of blame directly at him. Like it was ALL his fault. While he's surely not on social media or normally paying too much attention to what the outside world thinks about him, I'd wager that those in his inner circle (family, close friends, his agent, etc.) let him know the picture that was being painted - that he was a clueless bum and an abject failure of a coach. While you can't last in the NFL for as long as Rich has without being able to handle pressure, this is pressure of a different kind. Thanks to the internet, social media and the resulting environment of no repercussions for making false statements and accusations, it's very easy to ruin someone's reputation, even if completely unjustified (I'm going to stop myself there on that topic before I go on a five page rant on it).
My first thought when Bisaccia said he was stepping down to pursue other opportunities, was that he probably will look to take a step back and work on a college staff where he can do more mentoring and teaching of younger players. As I write this Tuesday morning, there have been reports that Clemson is close to hiring him as their special teams coordinator. Bisaccia has some significant history in South Carolina in the late 80s and 90s. He coached for six years at the University of South Carolina and then five years at Clemson as their running backs coach and special teams coach. I can envision him wanting to return to that beautiful (and much warmer) area and while Clemson is no small-time university, perhaps he sees it as an opportunity to change the narrative around him and shed the pressure of being the person everyone is blaming for failures that should be attributed to a group of men.
There's a song from a British Ska group called The Specials (appropriate, right), who ruled the UK pop charts in the very late 70's and early 80s. It's always been one of my favorite songs and this whole situation made me think of it. It's called "Pressure Drop" and some of the lyrics go like this:
It is you (oh, yeah)
It is you, you (oh, yeah)
It is you (oh, yeah)
I say, a pressure drop, oh pressure
Oh yeah, pressure drop, a drop on you
I say, a pressure drop, oh pressure
Oh yeah, pressure drop, a drop on you
I say, and when it drops, oh, you gonna feel it
Know what you were doing's wrong
I say, when it drop, oh, you gonna feel it
Know what you were doing's wrong
It is you (oh, yeah)
It is you, you (oh, yeah)
It is you, you (oh, yeah)
Go Pack Go!