When Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy formally announced his staff and their duties on Thursday, there was a lot of talk about special teams.
You know the Packers special teams are no good, I know they’re no good and McCarthy knows they’re no good. The one person who’s in a position to do something about that is going to.
Much like he did with the defense last season, McCarthy — now sans offensive play-calling duties — is going to be more involved with special teams. He’ll join Ron Zook and assistant Jason Simmons as the third coach in on all special teams meetings and decisions.
“I will spend a lot of time with the special teams. Special teams needs to improve,” McCarthy said. “It’s an area definitely of concern in the past. We have to continue to develop our young players, get them ready to play and contribute as quickly as possible.
“And we [also] need to get more out of our veterans. To me, that’s the hole in our special teams. The consistency and the standard of play in our veteran players is not where it needs to be. And that will be a direct focus of mine.”
That last part right there was somewhat of a theme.
Zook, who’s taking over for Shawn Slocum, also mentioned the veteran players’ failures on special teams.
“I think [the] No. 1 [need is] the veterans buying in. I’m not saying they didn’t buy in. But the emphasis is, those young guys – particularly early – they’re going to pay attention to what the veterans are doing. If you go back and you look at the top special teams in the league, usually their veteran guys are leading those younger guys.
“I don’t foresee a lot of change. I think the things we did this past year were good, really good. I don’t foresee a lot of change.”
The Packers have had some solid veteran contributors on special teams. Cornerback Jarrett Bush and fullback John Kuhn come to mind, but the list pretty much ends right there.
The Packers’ failure to stop Seattle’s fake field goal in the NFC Championship game has, to us, come to epitomize the failures of the Packers special teams. That play was primarily the fault of two veteran players (and the former coach for calling for a block).
Seattle ran the fake because they saw linebacker Brad Jones was too aggressive in going for the block. They were successful because cornerback Davon House failed to react to the fake. House pretty much failed to do anything at all on the play, which left A.J. Hawk as the lone defender versus two Seahawks.
That game alone isn’t the reason for these changes though. It just perfectly symbolizes the need for them.
The Packers were last in the league in special teams in 2014. They’ve consistently been in the bottom half of the league since McCarthy became the coach in 2006.
But now there’s a new sheriff in town and he says things are going to change.
“Ron and I and Jason, we’ll sit down and we’ll start the first page of the playbook, the huddle. Page 1, and go all the way through,” McCarthy said. “The culture, the energy, the mechanics of how you train your football team – there will be some changes. There always is anytime you’re changing a position coach and coordinator. That’s obvious. It’s important to be creative.
“It’s all about growth. It’s all about culture. It’s all about energy. And we’ll have energy and a different culture on special teams.”
About damn time.