Green Bay Packers Special Teams Still Looks Like Major Weakness Entering Week 1

It's the unit to which no one gives much thought, until it begins performing poorly—and as the Green Bay Packers' 2015 NFL preseason comes to a close, its special teams is getting a lot of thought. 

Head coach Mike McCarthy relinquished play-calling duties to associate head coach Tom Clements this offseason in part to focus more on the general picture of the game, including offense and defense but especially special teams. 

The unit finished dead last in the league in 2014, per the annual Dallas Morning News rankings.

Green Bay made a number of moves to ensure that didn't happen again, from McCarthy giving up play-calling to firing former special teams coordinator Shawn Slocum and promoting his assistant, Ron Zook, drafting players who could make the return game more dynamic and bringing in competition at punter for Tim Masthay in training camp (punter Cody Mandell was ultimately cut). 

But after a woeful showing by the unit in the preseason, especially in the last two games on the schedule against the Philadelphia Eagles and New Orleans Saints, have those changes had any effect? Will the unit click once the regular season begins, or is it going to be the team's downfall once again? 

Let's look back at where the unit faltered this preseason. 

Penalties	Punting - Net Yds/Avg.	Opp. Kickoff Returns	Kick Return Yds Allowed	Kick Return Avg.
11	39.9	14	367	33.3

The situation was not pretty against the Eagles. As ESPN.com's Rob Demovsky pointed out, Green Bay had eight special teams penalties called against the Eagles. It had 12 accepted special teams penalties through the entire 2014 season. 

That number improved Thursday night against the Saints. Though the Packers had four accepted penalties, none were the fault of special teams. Zook was correct when he explained after the Eagles game that some officiating crews call the games tight during the preseason, per Wes Hodkiewicz of Press-Gazette Media. 

But the totals, nonetheless, were worrisome. 

Then there's the punting. The Packers cut former Alabama punter Mandell prior to the start of the preseason, indicating they felt confident in moving ahead with Masthay. But what Masthay is doing on the field in practice is not translating to games. 

Masthay has the lowest average among all NFL punters through the preseason, per Pro Football Focus, at 39.9 yards on average on 15 punts as of Thursday night. 

"He's just got to punt every punt like he punts in warmups," Zook said, per Hodkiewicz. "He's out there booming them in warmups. Tim's his biggest enemy. He's trying too hard. Just relax and punt the ball. But I can see him getting back to where he needs to get to."

Letting up significant yardage on kick returns has also been a thorn in the Packers' side this preseason. Against the Eagles, it was Raheem Mostert's 67-yard return on the opening kickoff. Then, Thursday night against the Saints, it was a 48-yard kick return by Willie Snead. 

"Once again, in preseason, that's why it's called preseason," Zook said, per Hodkiewicz. "These are mistakes, now if this was in the season and were still doing the same things…but the thing you have to do is be able to learn from these mistakes."

Before the game against the Saints, McCarthy indicated that special teams was the "priority," per WISports.com, in player evaluations in the final preseason game. 

For his part, the head coach was pleased with the unit as a whole. "We got better tonight," McCarthy said after the game, per the Packers' twitter account. 

But despite some improvements—Masthay's punting net average rose to 43.0, Jared Abbrederis had an opening punt returned for 17 yards and penalties were down—this unit still doesn't look highly competitive overall heading into 2015. 

The offense and defense may be able to make up for any deficiencies that the third phase proves to have, but with so much attention focused on the unit this offseason, it would be nice to see dividends as early as Week 1.