Special Teams

[slaughter25]

For the last few years the packers have been unable to crest into the top 20 in the league on special teams. This has arguably the worst facet of the packers game coming into this season. They ranked dead last two years ago and barely moved up this year to 26th. From what I saw the special teams gave up nearly as many big plays ( ie: Falcons td return in divisional play offs) as they ever have. Mason Crosby has proven he has a strong leg but has been inaccurate at times, and neither our punt or kick returns have been anything to write home about. With that being said, what should/will the team do to address these seemingly perrenial problems?

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | 2010 SPECIAL TEAMS RATINGS

NFL Stats: by Player Category

 

[ivo610]

I think last seasons injuries affected the special teams a great deal. I dont know what you do about it directly besides hammer the basics. I mean that return in the Pats game will live on forever sadly.

I want to see a new kicker but not sure if that will happen.

 

[SpartaChris]

As Ivo said, it's tough to make improvements on Special Teams when you keep losing your guys to injury and have to replace them with guys just off the street. Essentially, all that work done in training camp was thrown out the window.

I'm willing to give a pass for last season due to injury. I believe we can, and will, turn it around. We drafted a guy who can return punts and kicks (Cobb) and will have most of our guys back healthy.

 

[ivo610]

J Bush is like the Aaron Rodgers of the special teams lol

 

[OldSchoolFan]

J Bush is like the Aaron Rodgers of the special teams lol

NEVER mention those two names in the same sentence again...

 

[ivo610]

NEVER mention those two names in the same sentence again...

He was epic last season on Special Teams and when his number was called he came up with 2 HUGE plays in the SB. He deserves a large amount of praise. Bush had a better SB than the 2010 DPOY

Both are captains.

 

[SpartaChris]

J Bush is like the Aaron Rodgers of the special teams lol

That's actually not a bad comparison when you think about it. Kid is an ST ace. Not really good at anything else, but he rocks on ST, so much so he was named ST captain last season.

 

[ivo610]

That's actually not a bad comparison when you think about it. Kid is an ST ace. Not really good at anything else, but he rocks on ST, so much so he was named ST captain last season.

That pick in the SB was epic. I wonder if he will see more time on defense this year.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUD5oW91Pv4]‪Jarrett Bush Interception in the SuperBowl‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]

I couldnt find the video of the pass deflection though. I remember it being a close INT and being very key at the time.

 

[PackersRS]

Special Teams is all about fundamentals. Obviously not every player on the Packers ST unit was prepared. More often than not players didn't obey lanes, tackled poorly, or committed stupid mistakes like staying near the ball and being pushed to it.

In the end, it all falls in the shoulders of the coach. He didn't prepare his players.

Now, did injuries have a role in it? Yes, too much shifting in personel midseason doesn't make things easy. But it wasn't the first year that those mistakes have happened with the same coach.

So in the end it's Slocum's fault it didn't go the way it was supposed to. Now, that doesn't necessarily means he should be fired for it (and I think, with the no contact offseason, they made the right choice, changing coaches right now could be disastruous), and I do believe that another year with basically the same players, plus a new "batch" of ST quality players will help tremenduously. And we did see some games where the ST unit performed remarkably well (Jets game, last 2 Bears games).

Getting a kick returner in the draft will help. Getting more ST players in the draft (DJ Smith, DJ Williams, Ryan Taylor) will help. Another year with these players will help.

I do think a more competent coach would've achieved better results earlier though.

 

[Aaron rodgers is god]

I think Randall Cobb will help us greatly with kickoff and punt returns. I think Masthay will become a very good punter. He can kick the **** out of it and showed glimpses of greatness last year as a rookie. Crosby needs help. He needs to become more consistent. Whether it be focusing or fundamentals, he better improve otherwise we will need to get rid of him. He misses way to many 40 yard kicks and very rarely ever makes a 50 yarder

 

[LAG]

I really dig Tim Masthay as a punter. First good directional punter the Pack has had in many ****'s ages for sure.

Crosby, he missed a couple last year at end of games early on, that would have given the team two more victories. He has to step it and and put it through the uprights when the game is on the line, from here on out.

 

[ivo610]

I think you can be fairly critical of TTs handling of the Special teams while he has been GM. The punter situation was a huge mess til last season and I dont think anyone has been thrilled with Crosby or our punt returns reguardless of health.

 

[GBPack2010]

I have confidence the players being back and new rookies drafted almost solely for Special teams will drastically improve that aspect of our game. Heard one of the TE outta NC was a super stud on ST. Guess we'll see