The Green Bay Packers finally kicked Shawn Slocum to the curb, replacing him with Ron Zook, and their special teams got better for it.
They literally couldn’t have gotten any worse.
A year after finishing dead last in Rick Gosselin’s special teams rankings, the Packers shot up to 17th.
Still not great, but a lot better than 32nd.
The highlight for the Packers was the best punt coverage in the league. The Packers gave up just 4.2 yards per return.
The Packers also did well with kicker Mason Crosby hitting 24 of 28 field goals and all 38 extra points, punter Tim Masthay’s 40.2 net average and the kickoff return team ranking fifth in average drive start (23.0).
They didn’t fare as well in these areas: 29th in opponent kickoff return average (26.7), 30th in opponent punt return average (5.4) and 24th in gross punt average (43.9).
You can see the full rankings here.
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Janis being downfield with his speed is what made a huge difference.
Get a punter with more and 2 seconds hang time. Pull Hentrich out of retirement. I cringe every time he kicks the ball.
Agreed.
If the Packer special teams improve when there is a coaching change maybe the Packers should improve there offense and defense too. Goodbye Dom Capers and Tom Clements.
Janis and Banjo are demons…..don’t understand how u can be best in NFL in punt return avg. at 4.2….but 30th in league in opponent punt return avg at 5.4?…what am i missing here?
Agreed with this as well; the 5.4 is probably our punt return avg., we did not have a good year returning punts at all. Kick coverage team started off pretty well then faded, those returns vs. Detroit and Minnesota really hurt and have to be eliminated.
ZOOK!
I’m a little surprised about the punting net average being over 40. It seemed like Masthay was shanking a kick at the most inopportune times throughout the season.
Same here, and he had a 30-yarder or two about every single game, then again, when you kick them that short you don’t usually get much of a return, especially with Janis and Banjo covering them.