Under Rich Bisaccia, Packers special teams rebranding goes beyond WE-fense moniker

May 14, 2024

Head coach Matt LaFleur knows how it sounds. Yet he’s all-in, as are his Green Bay Packers players, just as they seemingly all have been with just about anything new special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia has instituted around Lambeau Field.

As most Packers fans have probably heard, the club no longer refers to their special teams as, well, special teams. Although the traditional term slips through frequently — conversational habits are hard to break, you know — players and coaches alike are using the term Bisaccia brought with him when he arrived this offseason.

They’re now called WE-fense.

Yes, really. As in, there’s an offense, a defense and a WE-fense.

Not only has LaFleur used “WE-fense” during press conferences this season, he’s gone so far as to use the nom de plume on the official team meeting and practice schedule shown on TVs inside the home locker room at Lambeau Field.

And as someone who — by his own admission — is a such a purveyor of dad joke-style humor that his own players give him unrelenting grief about it, the new nomenclature is right in LaFleur’s wheelhouse.

“I love it. It’s corny, but I’m a corny guy,” the Packers fourth-year head coach acknowledged to The Athletic. “The guys, I know they laugh and make jokes at my expense. But I think sometimes, if you embrace it and own it, then sometimes the corny stuff sticks.”

So far on special teams, it has stuck. That said, the Packers special teams’ rebranding through the first three games of the 2022 season goes far deeper than merely renaming them.

What we learned about the Packers from their roster moves and GM’s comments over the last two days, with nuggets on special teams emphasis, Aaron Rodgers’ roster input, Mason Crosby’s health, Rudy Ford, Samori Toure over Juwann Winfree and more: https://t.co/Ulcih9BXdM

— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) August 31, 2022

To appreciate just how far the Packers’ special teams units have come in the past eight months, allow Bill Belichick to explain.

Belichick devoted part of his offseason to breaking down film of all of his New England Patriots’ 2022 opponents, which is to say he looked at all kinds of Packers film in preparation for Sunday’s game at Lambeau Field. And what the Patriots head coach sees from Green Bay’s special teams units now looks nothing like what he watched then.

“We looked at them from last year in the offseason, and I think they’ve definitely upgraded that,” Belichick said. “They lead the league in field position. Defensively, they have a long field more than any team in the league. I think that’s two things: One, not turning the ball over on offense; and two, having good coverage in the kicking game.

“They can rush, they can return, they can cover, and they can protect — (which) hurt them last year in the playoffs.”

It certainly did. The top-seeded Packers’ 2021 season ended with a 13-10 loss at home to the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round, and special teams played an ignominious central role: They allowed a blocked field goal, a blocked punt for the 49ers’ only touchdown and had only 10 men on the field for the Niners’ victory-clinching field goal as time expired.

PUNT BLOCK TOUCHDOWN.

The @49ers have tied it! #NFLPlayoffs #FTTB

📺: #SFvsGB on FOX
📱: https://t.co/VWvPUv1xA7 pic.twitter.com/Cf55IHP2Rq

— NFL (@NFL) January 23, 2022

That led LaFleur to fire Maurice Drayton as coordinator and pounce when the Las Vegas Raiders didn’t hire Bisaccia as their head coach after he’d taken over on an interim basis and led them to the playoffs after Jon Gruden’s resignation.

But the 62-year-old Bisaccia’s hiring — he is the Packers’ fourth special teams coordinator in five years — was just the beginning for a group that finished dead last in the league in longtime NFL columnist Rick Gosselin’s annual rankings in 2021.

Since Bisaccia’s arrival, there are two tangible differences where the shift is most obvious: on the roster, and in practice.

First, general manager Brian Gutekunst gave Bisaccia a voice in personnel decisions, admitting following the final roster reduction of training camp that he had altered his team-building approach to factor in special teams more than ever before.

“I think we’ve done things that might be out of character for us as far as some of the guys we brought in that maybe don’t play as big a role on offense or defense, but maybe they’re more heavily special teams players,” Gutekunst explained. “We’ve got to get better there to accomplish the goals that this team wants to accomplish. We have to be better. I think we will be.

“We certainly invested a lot, not only in Coach Bisaccia, but some of the guys we brought in.”

The three players atop that list are special teams leader Dallin Leavitt and flyers Keisean Nixon and Rudy Ford, all of whom Belichick acknowledged Wednesday. Leavitt and Nixon played for Bisaccia with the Raiders; Ford, formerly of the Jacksonville Jaguars, was added after the final cuts in part because of his extensive special teams experience and production.

“In the past, we never really won games like this."

“You’ve got to feel great about the defense and that third category, the ‘we-fense.'"

“I think it was a gritty team win."

Story from Tampa on a team that won different and what it means going forward: https://t.co/W0PGzcX1ai

— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) September 26, 2022

The trio’s presence has not gone unnoticed by quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who has recalibrated his expectations for the group as a whole. In the past, the four-time NFL MVP has said repeatedly that all he wants is for the Packers to “break even” on special teams — something that clearly didn’t happen in the loss to the 49ers.

Now he wants more. And he believes the group will deliver.

“We have three legitimate ‘teamers,’ I would say,” Rodgers said of Ford, Leavitt and Nixon. “And it ups the entire focus and energy and approach to special teams when you have legitimate ‘teamers who take that really, really seriously and that’s their entire game.

“’Teams’ is a little different around here. And it’s a nice change.”

Nixon and Ford helped punter Pat O’Donnell, who had five of his seven punts downed inside the 15-yard line in Sunday’s win over the Buccaneers to earn the NFC’s special teams player of the week award.

“It’s awesome to have two guys (like that),” O’Donnell said. “Sometimes you only get one of those special teams players on the unit. But we’re fortunate to get both of those guys, and I think we’re making amazing steps moving forward with the special teams.”

"He was huge in that game."

NFC Special Teams Player of the Week @PatODonnell_16 👏#GoPackGo pic.twitter.com/mxXLgAnGWr

— Green Bay Packers (@packers) September 29, 2022

Although the Packers’ punt coverage unit is only 19th in opposing punt return average (8.3 yards per return), the stat is slightly misleading because only four of O’Donnell’s 13 punts have even been returned. He and the coverage unit have forced eight fair catches, and nine of his 13 punts have been inside opponents’ 20-yard lines.

The other impossible-to-miss change is in practice, where LaFleur has allowed Bisaccia to have his coverage units engage in full-speed coverage snaps, something LaFleur had never done as a head coach or seen as an assistant in his previous stops.

“I mean, those guys, they are going in those periods. The foot is on the gas,” LaFleur said. “It’s as game-like as I’ve ever been around. We are full-covering, and that does zap your energy quite a bit. In the past, I’ve kind of held the reins on that because I want our guys fresh for game day, but that obviously hasn’t paid off the way we wanted it to in the past. So we definitely made a wholesale philosophical change in terms of the approach and how we practice as far as special teams. Hopefully it’ll pay off.”

Bisaccia explained that in nine- or 11-rep coverage periods, the third, sixth and ninth reps are at full speed while the others are not, allowing players to work both on technique on the slower reps, then work on spacing and lane integrity on the full-speed ones.

“I think we do it in a way in which it’s conducive for them playing well on Sunday,” Bisaccia said. “In our opinion, we have to run the field because that is what we do. And if we don’t somehow get on our landmarks and get in our lanes and understand how to fan the field and work pad leverage, if we don’t do that in practice, it’s hard to play well in the game.”

Added Leavitt, who saw the positive in-game impact such full-speed coverage work in practice had with the Raiders: “It’s the closest you can get to a game-like experience. To me, if we’re going to do offensive and defensive plays that are as close as we can get to a full, game-like experience, we have to do the same thing on special teams. We have to understand our lanes, we have to understand leverages, and I think the only way you do that is through full-speed reps.

“I think we have an understanding of folks’ roles and how they’re going to play certain things. It doesn’t mean we’re where we want to be, but I do think we’re going in the right direction, and I do think everybody’s bought in. You can see it on the tape. Folks are laying their body on the line for each other.”

Meanwhile, beyond the on-field improvement, it’s impossible to underestimate how much Bisaccia has meant to changing Green Bay’s special-teams culture.

Bisaccia is the Packers’ 11th special teams coordinator since the franchise’s modern renaissance began in 1992 under Pro Football Hall of Fame general manager Ron Wolf, coach Mike Holmgren and quarterback Brett Favre. His 10 predecessors: Nolan Cromwell (1992-97), Johnny Holland (1998), Steve Ortmayer (1999), Frank Novak (2000-02), John Bonamego (2003-’05), Mike Stock (2006-08), Shawn Slocum (2009-14), Ron Zook (2015-18), Shawn Mennenga (2019-20) and Drayton (2021).

According to Gosselin’s annual special teams rankings, which ranks teams in 22 special teams categories, the Packers were among the NFL’s best during the 1990s but have perennially been near the bottom ever since.

The Packers have finished in the top 10 just eight times in the last 30 seasons: In 1992, 1993, 1996 and 1997 under Cromwell; in 1998 under Holland; in 2003 and 2004 under Bonamego; and in 2007 under Stock.

During the same timeframe, the Packers have finished last five times: In 2005 under Bonamego, in 2006 under Stock, in 2014 under Slocum, in 2018 under Zook and last year under Drayton.

They’ve also finished in the lowest quartile of the rankings an additional seven times, meaning they’ve been near the bottom of the league more than half the time.

To finally put an end to those annual embarrassments, LaFleur made Bisaccia the league’s highest-paid special teams coordinator, with a reported annual salary of over $2 million per year.

So far, it appears to be money well spent.

“This is the frickin’ third time I’ve worked with this guy. We were together in Tampa, we were together at the Chargers, and now we’re back together,” Packers defensive coordinator Joe Barry said. “And I love Rich Bisaccia. I really do, truly.

“And probably, as much as I love him, I probably respect him more than anything just because of the demeanor he has, the mindset that he has. He’s a guy that’s hard-nosed, he’s passionate but, at the same time, he really doesn’t show it all the time, but he’s one of the most caring, sincere people that you’ll ever be around.

“We should all be lucky that we have a guy that really should be a head coach in this league leading our special teams.”

Added Belichick: “Rich is one of the top special teams coaches in the league, and has been. I’ve always had a ton of respect for Rich and the job he’s done. He’s very thorough, aggressive, his units always play well, and his team played well last year at (Las Vegas).”

Packers special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia and his family had a special connection with Neena Pacholke, the 27-year-old Wisconsin news anchor who recently took her own life.

Here’s how he ended his press conference today. Powerful stuff: pic.twitter.com/IsF85vbKHu

— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) September 8, 2022

For his part, and despite his history of turning around woebegone special teams units, Bisaccia doesn’t want anyone seeing him as a miracle worker. He knows there will be ups and downs with his group, but he also knows his process works.

“We’re still in the process of building a unit. I think we’re going to be good; I think we’re going to hit some bumps in the road, you know?” Bisaccia said. “It just takes a little getting used to at times, but I think we’re moving in the right direction.”

And maybe, just maybe, that’ll lead directly to a different playoff experience for the Packers, too.

“Even me, being with the Raiders last year, we knew what happened to these guys. It’s heart-breaking,” Nixon said. “But the whole reason to bring guys in and bring Rich in is to have it not happen anymore. Whatever Rich wants, Matt’s willing to make it happen. And it’s working out. We’re just going to get better from here.”

(Photo of Rich Bisaccia: Larry Radloff / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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