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.