On Thursday, Daniel Whelan became the third Packers’ special teamer to ink a (relatively) long-term deal with the team. Kicker Brandon McManus re-signed this spring after riding in to rescue the Packers’ kicking game last season, and long snapper Matthew Orzech inked a new deal in late August. The trio of deals assures the Packers will have their special teams battery together through at least 2027, giving the team something that’s been relatively rare in the Brian Gutekunst era: special teams stability.
It’s not for lack of trying. Gutekunst has been turning over his specialists more or less since he took the top job in Green Bay.
In his first draft as the Packers general manager, he drafted both a punter (JK Scott) and a longsnapper (Hunter Bradley). That gave the Packers some nominal security, but in reality it was anything but stable.
Both Scott and Bradley were inconsistent, Scott especially so after then-special teams coordinator Sean Mennenga started to fiddle with his mechanics a bit. The lanky punter was cut after the 2020 season, paving the way for the Packers to trade for Rams punter Corey Bojorquez.
Bojorquez held down the punter gig for exactly one season, averaging 46.5 yards per punt for the Packers in 2021. His big leg was never in question (he had a long punt of 82 yards that year), but his directional kicking left something to be desired, so the Packers parted ways after that year.
Meanwhile, Bradley was cut midway through the 2021 season, opening the door for Steven Wirtel to take the job for the remainder of the season. Wirtel and Bojorquez, of course, were a part of the blocked punt that played a big part of the Packers’ 2021 playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers at Lambeau Field.
In 2022, the Packers started over at punter and longsnapper. Gutekunst signed former Bears punter Pat O’Donnell that offseason, giving him a relatively rich two-year, $4 million deal to fix their punting issues. O’Donnell lacked Bojorquez’s big leg, but made up for it with precision. He landed 46.2% of his punts inside the 20, and just 1.9% of his punts resulted in touchbacks — both figures were career highs. Meanwhile, at longsnapper, the Packers turned to Jack Coco, an undrafted free agent long shot.
Both O’Donnell and Coco would last just one season in Green Bay. O’Donnell lost his job to Irish prospect Daniel Whelan the next summer, unable to compete with the big leprechaun’s powerful leg. Coco was cut in the spring of 2023, and the Packers ponied up to bring in Matthew Orzech, a Super Bowl winner with the Rams in 2021. Though they had their growing pains, the two finally helped solve conundrums at two positions.
But while the Packers were trying to fix their punter and longsnapper spots, they had another problem to deal with: Mason Crosby was getting old. 2022 would turn out to be his last season in Green Bay, setting up a multi-season kicker derby to try to replace him.
Anders Carlson, a 2023 draft pick, got the first crack at the job. After a strong start, the cracks started to show, and Carlson fell apart in the second half of the season. He missed at least one kick (field goal or PAT) in eight of the Packers’ final 10 games, including a 41-yard field goal that would have given the Packers a seven-point lead late in their Divisional Round matchup against the San Francisco 49ers. They ultimately lost by three points.
In 2024, Carlson competed with Greg Joseph and a few others for the Packers’ kicking job. The winner was ultimately…nobody. The Packers cut all their kickers after training camp in 2024 and turned to waiver wire acquisition Brayden Narveson. Narveson went 12 of 17 on field goals across six games before he got the ax, paving the way for McManus to take over.
Now, the Packers appear set to roll with their Whelan, McManus, and Orzech triumvirate. So far, this trio looks well positioned to finally end a long series of questions for the Packers on special teams. Although, given the state of the Packers’ special teams over the last decade or so, that’s hardly a guarantee.
