GREEN BAY – It didn’t take special-teams assistant Cam Achord long to convince Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur he should replace Rich Bisaccia as the team’s special-teams coordinator.
Achord was the last of a series of interviews LaFleur conducted in Green Bay with candidates seeking the coordinator position.
PackersNews confirmed that LaFleur chose Achord after interviewing him Friday, Feb. 27. ESPN and NFL Network were the first to report LaFleur’s decision.
The Packers did not announce the hiring.
Achord, a former New York Giants assistant and New England special-teams coordinator beat out Seattle’s Devin Fitzsimmons, Arizona’s Sam Sewell and San Francisco’s Colt Anderson, all of whom also interviewed with LaFleur this week.
New England coach Bill Belichick hired Achord as a special teams assistant in 2018 and promoted him to coordinator in 2020. Achord’s units ranked No. 1 in Rick Gosselin’s annual special-teams ranking in 2020.
In 2022, the Patriots finished 32nd in special teams DVOA, which is a performance measure of every special-teams play compared to the NFL’s average performance. In ’23, they gave up three kick-return touchdowns and in ’24 they ranked 28th. In Gosselin’s rankings, the Patriots fell to 18th in 2021, 16th in 2022 and 13th in 2023.
Achord was not retained when Jerod Mayo replaced Belichick as head coach.
The Giants hired Achord as an assistant under coordinator Michael Ghobrial in 2024.
LaFleur was caught by surprise when Bisaccia resigned Feb. 17. By the time Bisaccia stepped down, every special-teams coordinator position in the league had been filled and it left LaFleur with a small field from which to choose.
Bisaccia was well-liked among Packers players but his units did not perform consistently well. The Packers stuggled in their kicking game and never were able to win field position with their return game.
This article originally appeared on Packers News: Packers hire Cam Achord as special-teams coordinator