Given the way their NFC divisional round playoff loss to the 49ers played out last month, no one would have been surprised if the Packers fired special teams coordinator Maurice Drayton before they left Lambeau Field for the night.
As it turned out, it took a week for the team to make its move. Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Drayton will not return for another season with the team.
Packers kicker Mason Crosby had a field goal blocked at the end of the first half of that loss to the 49ers, who got their first points of the game after Deebo Samuel returned a kickoff to midfield to start the second half. The biggest blow came in the fourth quarter when defensive lineman Jordan Willis blocked a Corey Bojorquez punt and Talanoa Hufanga returned it for the only touchdown the Niners scored in a 13-10 win.
Drayton was in his first year as the coordinator in Green Bay. He spent the previous three seasons as an assistant special teams coach and was the special teams coordinator for the Colts for two seasons before coming to the Packers.
The Packers were subpar on special teams all season, so there was more than one bad day behind the decision to make a change but it was a day bad enough that some reaction was inevitable.
