Melt74
9 years ago

GREEN BAY — After their special teams units followed up a poor regular season with two catastrophic mistakes with the Super Bowl on the line, the Green Bay Packers are in the market for a new special-teams coordinator.

Packers coach Mike McCarthy fired special-teams coordinator Shawn Slocum Friday afternoon, after watching Slocum's units finish dead last in the 32-team NFL in Dallas Morning News columnist Rick Gosselin's annual rankings and commit two crucial mistakes in the team's NFC Championship Game loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

"I would like to thank Shawn for all of his contributions over the past nine years," McCarthy said in a statement released by the club's public relations department. "He was a positive contributor to our success, including helping us win Super Bowl XLV. We wish Shawn, Michelle and their family the best moving forward."

Slocum had been the Packers' special-teams coordinator since 2009 and was one of only five remaining members of McCarthy's original coaching staff from 2006. McCarthy and Slocum had coached together since their days at the University of Pittsburgh in the early 1990s.'

In his first nine seasons as Packers coach, McCarthy had only fired one previous coordinator: Defensive coordinator Bob Sanders, following the 2008 season.

"We have a format that we follow," McCarthy replied Wednesday when asked during his season wrap-up news conference about the process of evaluating assistants. "Obviously [we start by] gathering information, documentation things like that. Then you have start having your exit interviews with the coordinators and you go through all the assistants. It usually takes about a good week or so to do that."

Assistant coaches were supposed to be off all week, after their postseason meetings with McCarthy were postponed in the wake of McCarthy's younger brother Joe's death from a heart attack last week.

The Packers could promote Ron Zook, whom McCarthy hired last year after the ex-Florida and Illinois head coach had been out of football since 2011. Zook coached the Pittsburgh Steelers' special-teams units from 1996 through 1998.

Then again, Zook was part of a staff that was in charge of a special teams group that finished last in the NFL inGosselin's annual special-teams rankings , in which teams are ranked in 22 separate categories. The Packers had an NFL-high seven kicks blocked (two punts, three field goals, two extra points), their kickoff return unit was among the worst in the league, punter Tim Masthay struggled during the second half of the season, and both the kickoff and punt coverage units allowed touchdown returns.

Then came the loss in Seattle, where the field-goal block unit was burned for a 19-yard touchdown on a fake field goal and tight end Brandon Bostick failed to secure an onside kick with just over 2 minutes to play. Had Bostick, who was supposed to serve only as a blocker on the play, recovered the ball or allowed wide receiver Jordy Nelson to do so, the Packers would presumably be playing in Super Bowl XLIX on Sunday

Slocum's replacement will be the Packers' third special-teams coordinator of the McCarthy era. Veteran special teams coach Mike Stock held the job from 2006 through 2008 but retired at McCarthy's urging after the 2008 season.

Jason Wilde  wrote:


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Fan Shout
Mucky Tundra (2h) : Or ties, but let's be real here
Mucky Tundra (2h) : Other scenario was Falcons+Rams losses
Mucky Tundra (2h) : Needed a Falcons loss for a Seahawk loss to clinch
buckeyepackfan (2h) : Am I wring in saying if Tge Vikings beat The Seahawks, The Packers clinch?
Mucky Tundra (21-Dec) : Agreed; you stinks
Zero2Cool (21-Dec) : I'm not beating anyone. I stinks.
Mucky Tundra (21-Dec) : rough injury for tank dell. guy can't catch abreak
beast (21-Dec) : So far the college playoffs have sucked... One team absolutely dominates the other
beast (21-Dec) : Well even if you weren't positive towards a guy, you wouldn't nessarily want to tell the media that (if they don't know about it)
Martha Careful (21-Dec) : I think MLF want Love to look past the end half issues, and feel good about his play. Our coaches generally keep a very positive tone.
beast (21-Dec) : I think a great running game will do that for most QBs
packerfanoutwest (21-Dec) : Coach Matt LaFleur has said quarterback Jordan Love is playing the best football of his career.
beast (21-Dec) : Oh, that's how you keep beating buckeye, with cheating
Zero2Cool (20-Dec) : There is a rule that if your name starts with 'b' you lose 15 points. Hey, I don't make the rules, I just enforce them!
wpr (20-Dec) : and then there is Beast. Running away with it all.
beast (20-Dec) : As of tonight, 3 way tie for 2nd in Pick'em, that battle is interesting!
beast (20-Dec) : Lions vs Vikings could be the main last game as it could determine division winners or #1 vs #2 seed
Mucky Tundra (20-Dec) : Or if KC needs to win for the #1 seed
Mucky Tundra (20-Dec) : Right now it looks like the only prime worthy games are Det-Minny and KC-Denver (if Denver can clinch a wild card spot)
Mucky Tundra (20-Dec) : The entirety of week 18 being listed as flex is weird
Zero2Cool (19-Dec) : Matt LaFleur today says unequivocally "Ted Thompson had nothing to do with the drafting of Jordan Love."
Zero2Cool (19-Dec) : Apparently, the editing is what pieces comments together. That Ted thing ... fake news.
Zero2Cool (19-Dec) : LaFleur "opportunity that Ted Thompson thought was too good to pass up"
Zero2Cool (19-Dec) : Jordan Love pick was Ted Thompson's idea.
Mucky Tundra (19-Dec) : Kyle Shanahan on signing De'Vondre Campbell as a FA last offseason: “We obviously made a mistake.”
packerfanoutwest (19-Dec) : Alexander’s last season with GB
Martha Careful (18-Dec) : if I were a professional athlete, I would probably look to see who the agent is for Kirk Cousins and then use him
beast (18-Dec) : $100 million fully guaranteed Kirk Cousins gets benched for rookie
Mucky Tundra (18-Dec) : a lower case b
Mucky Tundra (18-Dec) : The real lie is how beast capitalized his name in his message while it's normally spelled with
packerfanoutwest (18-Dec) : haha that's a lie
beast (17-Dec) : Despite what lies other might tell, Beast didn't hate the Winter Warnings, it felt refreshing to Beast for some reason.
Zero2Cool (17-Dec) : whiteout uniforms in general are pretty lame and weak. NFL greed at it's worst
Martha Careful (17-Dec) : The Viking uniforms, the whiteout uniforms specifically absolutely suck
beast (17-Dec) : Thanks Zero2Cool, looks a lot better now
beast (17-Dec) : Seems like someone has a crush on me, can't stop talking about me
Zero2Cool (17-Dec) : Should be gooder now. The forum default theme went to goofy land.
Zero2Cool (17-Dec) : What the hell
packerfanoutwest (17-Dec) : yeah beast hates the Winter Warning Unies
Mucky Tundra (16-Dec) : Okay I'm glad to know it's not just something happening to me lol
Mucky Tundra (16-Dec) : Zero, did you copy the Packers uniforms from last night and white out the board?
beast (16-Dec) : Oh crap, is the board going to the Winter Warning Uniforms too?!? It's all white on white right now!
Zero2Cool (16-Dec) : WR Odell Beckham Jr is officially a free agent after clearing waivers.
Zero2Cool (16-Dec) : Packers are 6th in sacks.
Zero2Cool (16-Dec) : RB David Montgomery will undergo season-ending knee surgery.
Mucky Tundra (16-Dec) : Dan Campbell on onside kick with 12 minutes left: In hindsight, wish I didn’t do that
Zero2Cool (16-Dec) : They have that whole 12th man thing so ...
Zero2Cool (16-Dec) : Of the times we've played there, I just can't recall hearing our fans.
wpr (16-Dec) : Well done jdlax. Well done.
wpr (16-Dec) : I think more likely to be Pack fans that live in the area.
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