The Green Bay Packers were determined to have a better special teams unit in 2022. After last year’s playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers – in which the 49ers scored their only touchdown off a blocked punt – something had to change.
Last year, the Packers finished dead last in Rich Gosselin’s annual special teams ranking. This year, they jumped 10 spots to 22nd.
The effort to pull Green Bay’s special teams out of the gutter started with Matt LaFleur’s firing of first-year coordinator Maurice Drayton. LaFleur is not typically quick to cut ties with a member of his staff, but he did go through two special teams coordinators in his first three years as the head coach.