The Packers' special-teams problems are bigger than Rich Bisaccia

The Packers would probably benefit from a new special-teams coordinator. However, the organization imposes restrictions on itself that make such changes more complicated.

The Green Bay Packers have lost five games to this point in the 2025 season. All but one of those defeats featured a meltdown on special teams.

In Week 3, a blocked field goal in the final minute allowed the Cleveland Browns to claim an extra possession and turn it into the game-winning points.

Six weeks later, a missed field goal from the 25-yard line prevented the Packers from retaking the lead. They went on to lose 16-13.

On Monday Night Football eight days later, yet another missed field goal in the final seconds prevented the Packers from forcing overtime.

Then, most ignominiously, the Packers let a win over the Chicago Bears and control of the NFC North literally slip through their hands on a kickoff.

In each of these blunders, an individual player or two deserve blame for poor execution or a mental lapse. Mistakes like these can happen, and no team makes it through an entire season with a perfect record on special teams.

However, when the players routinely err in the third phase -- the above list doesn’t include Green Bay’s 24.1% touchback percentage or 21 special-teams penalties, the sixth worst and ninth worst marks in the NFL, respectively -- the fault shifts from the individuals and moves to the coach in charge of the operation.

In Green Bay, that man is Rich Bisaccia. The Packers hired the veteran coordinator in 2022 after a series of special-teams gaffes in the divisional round dashed their Super Bowl hopes. His arrival -- reportedly secured by making him the NFL’s highest-paid special-teams coordinator -- appeared to signal the end of the franchise’s neglect of the third phase.

Instead, Bisaccia has extended an already long run of poor performance. In his nearly four years on the job, his units finished in the top half of the NFL by DVOA only once (No. 15 in 2024). In two other full seasons, the Packers ranked 17th (2022) and 31st (2023), and they enter the final two weeks of 2025 positioned for a finish outside the top 20.

That hardly represents acceptable improvement for Green Bay, especially considering the additional resources the team poured into special teams since 2022. Besides handing Bisaccia a massive check, the front office also invested draft picks and prioritized career special teamers in free agency to help bolster his units.

After last weekend’s implosion, Bisaccia’s job status has once again come into question. Packers head coach Matt LaFleur chooses who does and doesn’t work on his coaching staff. However, though he officially has the power to move on from Bisaccia if he so desires, the organization imposes restraints that make such moves more complicated.