Photo Credit: Evan Siegle
You may not know about the 2010 San Diego Chargers, but they’re a bit of a legend. By pure yardage totals, they had the best offense and defense of the season, which is a truly rare feat. By efficiency stats they were not quite that good, and in a loaded AFC, there’s no guarantee they would have bested the Patriots or the Steelers, who would go on to lose to Green Bay in the Super Bowl, but the one thing everyone agrees on is that those Chargers, who went 9-7, and finished 4th in offensive DVOA and 7th in defensive DVOA, are the greatest team in modern NFL history to not make the playoffs. The reason they didn’t make the playoffs is the worst special teams you’ve ever seen.
That ranking is almost (but not entirely) based on their coverage unit. Kicker Nate Kaeding had a bad year, but Mason Crosby has had worse. Punter Mike Scifres was briefly one of the league’s best, and again, he wasn’t atrocious, though he did suffer some high-profile blocks. The problem was that Charger opponents gained spectacular field position as a matter of course, and in the end, By DVOA, were almost twice as bad as the next worst unit in the league.
The 2020 Packers aren’t quite that bad, but they are bad enough that it may come back to haunt them in the playoffs, as it almost did on Sunday against Detroit, and against the Eagles two weeks ago. Fortunately, Jalen Reagor’s 73-yard punt return touchdown for the Eagles wasn’t enough to close the gap, and Green Bay still won by two touchdowns. The score became uncomfortably close against the Lions after Jamal Agnew’s 71-yard kickoff return led to a late field goal. If backup quarterback Chase Daniel had not been denied a touchdown due to a holding penalty, and the Lions managed to recover an onside kick that just barely touched out of bounds, it could have been closer still.
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Struggling on Punts
Green Bay’s kickoff return coverage is bad, ranking 7th worst in football, but they really struggle on punts, where JK Scott’s adjusted net is 3rd worst in football, while the coverage unit is 9th worst. Some of their struggles can be attributed to talent, as the Packers lack depth on defense, and defensive depth provides your special teams unit with most of their talent, however most of this is coaching, and discipline.
Shawn Mennenga is the special teams coordinator for the Packers, and he was a controversial choice. While he was a favorite of defensive coordinator Mike Pettine, and his price was appealing to Mark Murphy, Matt LaFleur wanted to hire current Saints’ coordinator Darren Rizzi. According to several reports, the Packers lowballed Rizzi and wound up with Mennenga as a result.
While Mason Crosby’s excellent play has prevented a total disaster, Mennenga has largely been terrible, while Rizzi and the Saints frequently rank among the best special teams performers in the league. They currently rank 7th overall according to DVOA, and coming into the season, Rick Gosselin’s system ranked them first.
While Director of Football Operations Russ Ball often works miracles to keep the Packers under the salary cap, those instincts occasionally hurt the team when it comes to coaches and assistants. Paying for good assistants is almost always a cost-effective way to improve your team precisely because the cap isn’t an issue, and this wouldn’t be the first season that ended poorly due to special teams play. The Packers should be especially wary of this given their 1996 Super Bowl was won largely due to the special teams brilliance of Desmond Howard, and a potential 2014 Super Bowl trip was destroyed by poor special teams play in botching an onside kick recovery.
Green Bay is likely to be the NFC’s top seed in the playoffs. Their defense is far from perfect, but it is probably good enough to get the job done. It would be a shame if they lose out on a Super Bowl appearance in order to save a few thousand dollars on a special teams coordinator.
