Who plays on special teams? Kickoff edition

To better paint the picture of the Green Bay Packers’ special teams units as we inch closer to the regular season and roster cutdowns, which will almost certainly be influenced by special teams personnel, we’re breaking down who plays where and why on the “core four” phases of special teams. You can read our previous breakdowns of the punt team and the punt return team if you want to experience them in order.

Today, we focus on the kickoff squad.

I’m going to start this one a little differently, because the kickoff unit is a little less intuitive than other special teams phases. You can compare punt protectors to offensive linemen or vises to cornerbacks, but kickoff, especially with the NFL’s new rules, is a completely different animal.

So, let’s begin with the overall personnel.

NFL Total Snaps Played:

Linebacker: 8,035 snaps (27 percent)

Safety: 6,426 (22 percent)

Cornerback: 5,562 (19 percent)

Edge Defender: 3,034 (10 percent)

Running Back: 2,067 (7.0 percent)

Receiver: 1,812 (6.1 percent)

Tight End: 1,802 (6.1 percent)

Fullback: 478 (1.6 percent)

Defensive Tackle: 341 (1.2 percent)

I wish I could say that understanding the league’s kickoff team personnel was as easy as just looking at the list above, but there are five distinct positions on the unit. Usually, they’re identified by counting from the outside in. So the furthest players to the outside would be labeled as the “#1” (either left or right), and the most inside players would be labeled as the #5. Below is an example of how you’d number the Packers’ kickoff team with that methodology.

Now, let’s look into how these positions vary by the frequency of each snap played by a player’s true position in each spot. For the purposes of this, we’re labeling edge defenders as defensive ends and interior defensive linemen as defensive tackles, as the Packers do on their official roster.

Here’s the easy cheat sheet:

#1: Safety and cornerback position (88 percent of snaps)

#2: Choose your own adventure, pretty much completely open-ended

#3: Linebacker, defensive end and tight end position (72 percent)

#4: Linebacker and safety position (70 percent)

#5: Linebacker, safety and cornerback position (73 percent)

Linebackers, safeties and cornerbacks dominate the #1, #4 and #5 spots, making up 79 percent of the total snaps played there, but those positions are still distinct, in that cornerbacks mostly play the #1 (52 percent) compared to the #4 (4 percent) and the inverse is true about linebackers (5 percent and 53 percent). The #3 spot is where teams are the heaviest on special teams, as it’s where defensive ends (23 percent) and tight ends (15 percent) play the most snaps while also having a high participation rate among linebackers (34 percent). #2 is by far the most varied position, with six position groups taking up between 12 and 21 percent of the snaps there.

So let’s get into the Packers’ 2024 personnel and how it compares to the rest of the league.

Packers’ #1 snap counts

S Xavier McKinney: 97 (49 percent)

CB Carrington Valentine: 69 (35 percent)

CB Robert Rochell: 14 (7.1 percent)

CB/WR Bo Melton: 6 (3.1 percent)

LB Edgerrin Cooper: 4 (2.0 percent)

S Javon Bullard: 3 (1.5 percent)

CB Keisean Nixon: 1 (0.5 percent)

RB Chris Brooks: 1 (0.5 percent)

CB Corey Ballentine: 1 (0.5 percent)

Defensive backs played the outside position on kickoff for the Packers at a 97.4 percent rate, compared to the NFL average of 88 percent. All-Pro safety Xavier McKinney was an almost every-down player for Green Bay there last year (remember, this percentage share is out of two available #1 snaps on the field at the same time).

So there’s a slight lean in the Packers playing defensive backs here, if you want to retcon Bo Melton into a cornerback for the 2024 season, but this is mostly a cornerback and safety position anyway. Think of these players as the “contain” players who want to keep an outside shoulder clean and are only really relevant if the kick returner bounces the ball to the outside, where he has no leverage on a block.

Packers’ #2 snap counts

S Javon Bullard: 70 (38 percent)

CB Corey Ballentine: 64 (33 percent)

CB Robert Rochell: 33 (17 percent)

RB Chris Brooks: 13 (6.6 percent)

S Kitan Oladapo: 6 (3.1 percent)

WR Malik Heath: 5 (2.6 percent)

ED Lukas Van Ness: 4 (2.0 percent)

CB Carrington Valentine: 1 (0.5 percent)

Now this is where the Packers’ play rate of defensive backs starts to stick out. 89 percent of the team’s snaps, basically all of the non-Chris Brooks reps, were played by safeties or cornerbacks. Remember, this #2 spot is the NFL’s most open-ended position on the kickoff unit, where league-wide defensive backs make up less than 50 percent of the total snaps played. Maybe this changes post-Robert Rochell if Corey Ballentine doesn’t make the roster, but this number is at least notable for special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia in Year 1 of the “dynamic kickoff.”

Packers’ #3 snap counts

LB Ty’Ron Hopper: 81 (41 percent)

ED Arron Mosby: 55 (28 percent)

LB Edgerrin Cooper: 24 (12 percent)

LB Eric Wilson: 9 (5.6 percent)

CB Robert Rochell: 7 (3.8 percent)

ED Lukas Van Ness: 6 (3.1 percent)

S Zayne Anderson: 5 (2.6 percent)

RB Chris Brooks: 5 (2.6 percent)

CB/WR Bo Melton: 2 (1.0 percent)

LB Isaiah McDuffie: 1 (0.5 percent)

S Kitan Oladapo: 1 (0.5 percent)

We mentioned this in the punt return article, but this is just another example of the Packers’ special teams unit treating 4-3 defensive end Aaron Mosby like a 4-3 linebacker in the third phase of football. His peers here are Ty’Ron Hopper, Edgerrin Cooper and Eric Wilson, all off-ball linebackers.

The #3 spot is the heaviest position on the kickoff team league-wide, yet Green Bay still likes to lean in on linebackers over edge defenders in this spot, and tight ends are non-existent. The second-most played defensive end for the Packers (Lukas Van Ness) only played 3.1 percent of the snaps at #3 last year.

Packers’ #4 snap counts

S Zayne Anderson: 70 (36 percent)

CB/WR Bo Melton: 45 (23 percent)

LB Edgerrin Cooper: 25 (13 percent)

S Omar Brown: 9 (4.6 percent)

S Kitan Oladapo: 8 (4.1 percent)

LB Ty’Ron Hopper: 7 (3.6 percent)

LB Isaiah McDuffie: 6 (3.1 percent)

S Evan Williams: 6 (3.1 percent)

ED Lukas Van Ness: 6 (3.1 percent)

S Javon Bullard: 6 (3.1 percent)

ED Arron Mosby: 4 (2.0 percent)

RB Chris Brooks: 2 (1.0 percent)

LB Eric Wilson: 1 (0.5 percent)

WR Malik Heath: 1 (0.5 percent)

League-wide, 53 percent of the NFL’s #4 snaps were played by off-ball linebackers. In Green Bay, that number was just 20 percent, with four of the top five players in this spot being defensive backs (again, depending on what you consider Bo Melton). Like the #2 position, this is where a lot of their disproportionate defensive back snaps are created, compared to the rest of the league.

Packers’ #5 snap counts

LB Eric Wilson: 81 (41 percent)

S Evan Williams: 52 (27 percent)

S Kitan Oladapo: 18 (9.2 percent)

RB Chris Brooks: 16 (8.2 percent)

LB Edgerrin Cooper: 11 (5.6 percent)

LB Ty’Ron Hopper: 8 (4.1 percent)

S Zayne Anderson: 6 (3.1 percent)

LB Isaiah McDuffie: 2 (1.0 percent)

CB/WR Bo Melton: 1 (0.5 percent)

S Javon Bullard: 1 (0.5 percent)

League-wide, the #5 spot is a linebacker and safety position, which is mostly what you’re getting here outside of 16 snaps from running back Chris Brooks (who often plays linebacker positions on special teams) and one rep from receiver-turned-cornerback Bo Melton. Linebacker Eric Wilson was the most consistently-played defender here, but free-agent signing Isaiah Simmons should replace his snaps.

Below is a personnel cheat sheet for where the Packers’ players lined up last season, if you want all of that information at a single glance. The numbers in the #1 through #5 columns are how many snaps a player lined up in those roles last year. Green good, red bad color coding. I’m sure you can figure it out.

Here’s a breakdown of Green Bay’s overall kickoff snaps by non-special teams position, compared to the NFL average:

Safety: 358 (37 percent, NFL average of 22 percent)

Linebacker: 260 (27 percent, 27 percent)

Cornerback: 244 (25 percent, 19 percent)

Edge Defender: 75 (7.7 percent, 10 percent)

Running Back: 37 (3.8 percent, 7 percent)

Receiver: 6 (0.6 percent, 6.1 percent)

Overall, the Packers play safeties, linebackers and cornerbacks for 88 percent of their kickoff reps, compared to the NFL average of just 68 percent. This is pretty consistent with other phases of special teams. Bisaccia likes to have extra defenders to deploy. As Ken Ingalls, who analyzes Green Bay’s roster trends probably better than anybody, pointed out to me this week, the Packers haven’t had more offensive players than defensive players on their 53-man roster since Week 3 of the 2022 season, Bisaccia’s first year in Green Bay.

Of the 118 total kickoff snaps played outside of the safety, linebacker and cornerback positions, 96 of those snaps (81 percent of snaps available) were played by two players who the special teams unit treats like they’re linebackers: defensive end Arron Mosby and running back Chris Brooks. If any non-linebackers or safeties get the gold star next to their name for their non-returner special teams work on this roster, it’s those two players.

Green Bay didn’t give a single snap to tight ends, fullbacks or defensive tackles, who make up 8.9 percent of the league-wide average, on the kickoff unit. For whatever reason, too, the Packers didn’t seem comfortable in playing linebacker Isaiah McDuffie (nine total kickoff snaps) on kickoff, despite using him elsewhere on special teams and being more than happy to field linebackers. In terms of special teams snaps played, McDuffie being relatively absent on this unit sticks out like a sore thumb.

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As far as the Packers’ preseason debut goes, most of the “starters” on the kickoff team were sat before the team had their first kickoff attempt with 10 minutes to go in the second quarter. The only real exceptions were DE Arron Mosby and CB Corey Ballentine, who got first-look opportunities on the kickoff team. Cornerback Bo Melton wasn’t shut down by that point, but the team didn’t have him play special teams roles against the Jets, likely so that he could play more reps on the defensive side of the ball.

The non-2024 starters who got a shot on this first-look team were: DE Barryn Sorrell, LB Isaiah Simmons, LB Kristian Welch, LB Jamon Johnson, CB Micah Robinson, CB Kalen King, S Kitan Oladapo and S Omar Brown. I wouldn’t make too much of this. Oladapo was one of the first guys off the bench last year if there were an injury, which should probably continue in 2025. Sorrell and Simmons are both new to the team, but they’re both essentially roster locks, and it’s preferable that they contribute to the unit this year.

The remaining five players are essentially roster bubble players. Again, I wouldn’t paint broad brush strokes about the preseason personnel on the kickoff team, as the Packers didn’t show any intent on using the players they actually deploy once the regular season comes around.

Who plays on special teams? Kickoff edition

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