It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who watched the Green Bay Packers play in 2009 – the team’s special teams were atrocious.
That has been confirmed once again in the Dallas Morning News’ annual special teams rankings, where the Packers finished 31st. The rankings are compiled by ranking each team in 22 special teams categories and assigning points according to their standing – one for the best, 32 for the worst.
The Packers finished with 460.5 points. By comparison, the Cleveland Browns finished first with 215.5 points. In the overall rankings, only the Carolina Panthers were worse than the Packers. The Panthers finished with 473 points.
The Packers finished dead last in punts inside the 20 (15) and penalties (28).
In 2008, the Packers terrible special teams performance (they finished 26th in the rankings), cost special teams coach Mike Stock his job when he was forced into retirement.
Stock was replaced by Shawn Slocum and special teams remained the Packers’ Achilles’ heel.
Kind of makes you wonder why Slocum’s job doesn’t seem to be in jeopardy this offseason.
Oh, that’s right, the Packers had a winning record and Mike McCarthy didn’t need a scapegoat this offseason.