The Green Bay Packers have let go of the man in charge of their special teams, a unit that has often been subpar and cost the Packers games in recent years.
The Packers have ended the tenure of Ron Zook as special teams coordinator, a role he played since 2015.
ESPN’s Rob Demovsky gave this perspective.
More on the end of the Ron Zook special teams era. pic.twitter.com/uNJ6H2WfB9
— Rob Demovsky (@RobDemovsky) January 10, 2019
Zook was special teams assistant with the Packers in 2014.
In that time span, some of the Packers’ special teams’ subpar performances have included:
– 2014:
– 31st in kickoff return average, 30th in punting average, 1st (tie) in most combined touchdown returns allowed
– Jan. 18, 2015: Brandon Bostick’s failure on the onside kick recovery unit in the NFC Championship Game against Seattle, a failure that was a major part of the Packers’ collapse in that game leading to a defeat after a double-digit lead
– 2015:
– 30th in punt return average, 29th in average kickoff return yardage allowed, 24th in punting average
– 2018:
Individual instances:
– Oct. 28: Ty Montgomery’s kickoff return fumble against the Los Angeles Rams that cost the Packers a chance at the football and a game-winning drive in the game’s final minutes
– Dec. 23: Three gaffes by kickoff units leading to 17 New York Jets points and a fourth-and-one fake punt first down allowed
– Dec. 30: Kicker Matt Prater throwing a touchdown pass in the Packers’ 31-0 loss to Detroit in the season finale
NFLPenalties.com says the Packers had the third-most special teams penalty yardage in the NFL in 2018.
Footballoutsiders.com never ranked a Zook unit higher in its Special Teams DVOA (an overall special teams ranking formula) than 14th in the league, and it was ranked 30th for 2018 as of Dec. 25 of this year.