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Rob Demovsky
Multiple Authors
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Green Bay Packers will have a new special teams coordinator this season after Rich Bisaccia, who also served as assistant head coach to Matt LaFleur, announced Tuesday evening that he has stepped down.
Bisaccia, 65, has been with the Packers since 2022. He was hired to fix a problematic special teams unit that the previous season had a both a field goal and a punt blocked in a playoff loss. Bisaccia added the assistant head coach title in 2023. He came to the Packers after serving as the Raiders interim head coach during the 2021 season.
“After taking some time to reflect over the last few weeks, I have made the decision to step down as the assistant head coach and special teams coordinator of the Green Bay Packers,” Bisaccia said in a statement released by the team. “I am incredibly grateful to Matt LaFleur, Brian Gutekunst, Ed Policy and Mark Murphy for their unwavering trust and support throughout my time in Green Bay. I am also thankful to the players for their consistent work and relentless effort to improve every single day. I would like to thank everyone in the organization for their dedication and commitment. The people in this building make it a special place to work.”
Bisaccia became the second coordinator to leave the Packers this season after defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley was named the Dolphins’ head coach. The Packers hired former Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon to replace Hafley.
The new coordinator will be the fourth to run the special teams under LaFleur, who is entering his eighth season. Earlier this offseason, the Packers lost Bisaccia’s top assistant, Byron Storer, who became the Browns’ special teams coordinator.
While Bisaccia coached some successful individual performers — punter Daniel Whelan set the franchise record for gross and net punting average last season, and Keisean Nixon was twice selected as an All-Pro kick returner — some of the same mistakes that have haunted the Packers never went away.
Bisaccia’s hand-picked kicker, Anders Carlson, had a dismal rookie season, including a costly missed field goal in the 2023 playoff loss to the 49ers, and it started a revolving door of kickers.
Just this past season, the Packers had a potential winning field goal blocked in a Week 3 loss to the Browns; had an extra point blocked and returned for a two-point conversion in a Week 4 tie with the Cowboys; and muffed an onside kick recovery attempt by Romeo Doubs that the Bears recovered to help beat Green Bay in a Week 16 game.
Then, in the playoff loss to the Bears, kicker Brandon McManus missed two field goals and an extra point.
Bisaccia said last offseason that he contemplated stepping down then in part because he said, “I felt like I failed [LaFleur] at times in some of the things in the way in which we played.”
Still, earlier this offseason general manager Brian Gutekunst said he wanted to Bisaccia to return.
“What Rich brings to our culture, this football team, he’s a very impactful coach around here,” Gutekunst said earlier this month. “Certainly, I thought we’ve been better on [special] teams the last few years than we’ve been in a long time. Our cover units have been better, we’ve got one of the best punters in the National Football League, got an excellent snapper. Brandon was excellent last year.
“This year again he worked through some things injury wise and then had a bad playoff game. … I’ve got a lot of faith in Rich and his staff, what they do around here, not only the X’s and O’s, what they bring to the field, but what they bring to this place culturally is really important.”
LaFleur, in a statement, also indicated that he wanted Bisaccia to return.
“While we are disappointed to lose a person and coach as valuable as Rich, we respect his decision to step down from the Packers,” LaFleur said. “Rich was a tremendous resource to me and our entire coaching staff who had a profound impact on our players and our culture throughout the building. We can’t thank him enough for his contributions to our team over the last four years. We wish Rich, his wife, Jeanne, and the rest of their family all the best moving forward.”