Green Bay Packers announce hiring of new assistant coach

The Green Bay Packers have hired Byron Storer as their assistant special teams coach, they announced Tuesday. He will work under special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia.

Storer is entering his ninth season in the NFL and his eighth coaching special teams. He spent the past four seasons with the Las Vegas Raiders, where punter AJ Cole earned a Pro Bowl appearance this year. Kicker Daniel Carlson set franchise records for both field goal percentage (94.3%) and points scored (150) under Storer in 2020.

Prior to joining the Raiders, Storer was a coach for the San Diego Chargers. He started as a special teams assistant in 2012 but moved to linebackers assistant in 2013. Before that he was an assistant for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he also played from 2007-09 as a fullback.

An alumnus of the California Golden Bears, he was named second team All-Pac-10 special teams in 2006.

Green Bay’s special teams unit could certainly use some help. The Packers finished last in the NFL this past season according to Sports Illustrated’s Rick Gosselin. They were worst in the league in both punt coverage and kickoff starting point, while ranking 31st in field goal percentage and 30th in kick return average. Kicker Mason Crosby finished the year 25-for-34 on his field goal attempts, including three misses against Cincinnati in Week 5.

The Packers haven’t finished above 16th in Gosselin’s rankings just once (2017) since 2012. Meanwhile, the Raiders ranked 11th this past season.

Green Bay finished with a record of 13-4 in 2021 to claim the top seed in the NFC Playoffs and a first-round bye. However, an extra week of rest wouldn’t prevent them from losing to San Francisco in the divisional round.

With the addition of Storer as an assistant coach, the Packers will look to make up for their special teams shortcomings in 2022. The team has made eight of the past four NFC Championships with no wins to show for it.