Prominent Packers Coach Finalist for Top Job in AFC

The Green Bay Packers may be in the market for a new coordinator sooner than later.

Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia interviewed for the Indianapolis Colts head coaching vacancy on January 20. At the time, there were as many as a dozen candidates vying for the position. But as of Friday, February 10, that number had been whittled down to five. Bisaccia numbers among those remaining in the running, per Jason B. Hirschhorn of SB Nation.

“With Don ‘Wink’ Martindale and Brian Callahan reportedly out of the running for the #Colts head coaching job, the pool is down to five candidates, including #Packers special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia,” Hirschhorn tweeted.

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Bisaccia Has Impressed at Previous 2 Stops With Packers, Raiders

Bisaccia’s bonafides over the last couple of seasons speak for themselves and are probably why he has hung in for the Colts gig while more than half of the competition has faded away.

The long-time coordinator was heading up the special teams unit with the Las Vegas Raiders in 2021 before the team abruptly ousted head coach Jon Gruden from his position. The firing came after a scandal broke involving insensitive and insulting language that Gruden had used in emails years before while making reference to several groups.

Bisaccia, who had served as special teams coordinator and assistant head coach for the Raiders for nearly three and a half years at that point, stepped into the role of interim head coach upon Gruden’s departure. Bisaccia led Las Vegas to a 7-5 record while at the helm, as the team finished the year 10-7 and earned a trip to the playoffs. The Raiders lost a close contest at the wire to the eventual AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals during Wild Card Weekend.

After the 2021 campaign ended, Bisaccia interviewed for the full-time head coaching job in Las Vegas but ultimately lost that contest to the already-embattled Josh McDaniels, who came over from working as the offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots.

Bisaccia left the Raiders organization for the Packers, who hired him to fix a special teams unit that cost Green Bay a berth in the 2021 NFC Championship Game due to a couple of inexcusable blunders — a missed field goal at the end of the first half and a blocked punt that led to the game-changing touchdown for the San Francisco 49ers late in the contest.

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Bisaccia Brought Big-Play Return Man Keisean Nixon to Packers

If Bisaccia is hired, he will leave a special teams legacy in Green Bay after just one season on the staff. That legacy can be summed up in just four explosive words — kick returner Keisean Nixon.

Bisaccia brought the backup wide receiver with him to the Packers last season, where Nixon turned out to be a revelation. While the team ultimately fell one win shy of a playoff berth, the five-game stretch to the end of the regular season was an electrifying 4-1 run, thanks in large part to what Nixon added in the return game.

Nixon returned 35 kickoffs during the 2022 season, despite not assuming the role until midway through the campaign. He led the NFL with 1,009 kick return yards and produced the longest kickoff return of the season, a 105-yard touchdown, per Pro Football Reference.

While he somehow missed out on a Pro Bowl selection, the league named Nixon a first-team All-Pro as a return man and quarterback Aaron Rodgers shouted him out publicly on numerous occasions as a game-changing piece that helped turn the Packers’ season around after an abysmal 4-8 start.

Green Bay may not have the luxury of Bisaccia running its third phase in 2023, but will undoubtedly try to bring Nixon back to run roughshod over opposing special teams units in the return game, which would be more than enough to have made Bisaccia’s time with the franchise worth it.

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