Patriots Special Teams Outlook: Big Questions Loom After Dismal Season

As the March 15 start of the new NFL league year approach, we’re taking a position-by-position look at the New England Patriots roster.

Who’s returning? Who could be out the door? What are the biggest questions facing each group?

Next up: special teams.

UNDER CONTRACT
P Jake Bailey
K Nick Folk
LS Tucker Addington
ST Matthew Slater
ST Brenden Schooler
PR/KR Marcus Jones

IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
LS Joe Cardona
P Michael Palardy
ST Cody Davis

THREE BIG QUESTIONS
1. Who will be punting next season? If you go by either punting average or net punting average, the Patriots didn’t just have the NFL’s worst punter in 2022. They had the league’s worst and second-worst punters. Among players with more than 10 punts, Bailey ranked last in average and net average, and Palardy ranked second-to-last in both metrics.

Bailey’s fall from grace has been swift and shocking. Remember, he was a first-team All-Pro just two years ago, and he’s less than seven months removed from signing a four-year, $13.5 million extension that made him the league’s highest-paid punter at the time. Now, after landing on injured reserve and then being hit with a rare team-imposed suspension, it’s unclear whether he’ll even be on the roster in 2023.

The suspension could void the guarantees in Bailey’s contract, making him easier to release this offseason. The 25-year-old’s camp filed a grievance over the ban, and there have been no recent developments in his situation. Head coach Bill Belichick after the season said he hopes Bailey and suspended rookie cornerback Jack Jones both return to the Patriots, but ESPN’s Mike Reiss wrote that “it’s hard to imagine (Bailey) playing for the team again.”

If the Patriots are done with Bailey, they could look to land his successor in the 2023 NFL Draft. One name to know: Rutgers’ Adam Korsak, a 25-year-old Australian who won the Ray Guy Award as the top punter in college football.

Korsak, whom Friend of Belichick Greg Schiano called “the best punter (he’s) ever coached,” somehow allowed a total of -11 return yards (yes, minus-11) on 75 punts this season. He also delivered this beauty in the Senior Bowl:

An elite punter from Rutgers? Sounds like Belichick’s dream.

We also could see a change at long snapper, as Cardona is set to hit free agency for the first time. He handled every snap for the Patriots from the time he was drafted in 2015 until he was placed on IR this past December.

Addington, a 25-year-old Sam Houston State product with no prior NFL experience, replaced Cardona for the final three games and is under contract for the upcoming season.

2. Can anyone unseat Nick Folk? The Patriots brought in younger kickers to challenge Folk in each of the last three training camps, and the 38-year-old vanquished them all.

Folk has been one of New England’s most reliable contributors since he arrived in 2019, posting a field-goal conversion rate (89.3%) that ranks fifth-best in that span among all kickers with at least 75 attempts. His accuracy did dip a bit in 2022, however, resulting in as many missed field goals from inside 40 yards (four) as he had in the previous three seasons combined.

Still, he remained an asset, going 5-for-5 on field goals in two games and 4-for-4 in two others. He picked up one AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honor and helped buoy an offense that struggled to score points for much of the season.

The Patriots did not sign practice squadder Tristan Vizcaino to a future contract, so Folk, who has one year left on his deal, currently is the only kicker on their roster. But given his age, expect them to add another at some point this offseason. We’ll see if that newcomer can accomplish what players like Vizcaino, Quinn Nordin and Justin Rohrwasser couldn’t.

Kickoff ability should be a consideration here, too, depending on how the Patriots proceed at punter. Folk had to take over kickoff duties after Bailey’s midseason injury, and his inability to generate touchbacks burned New England down the stretch. The Patriots allowed an NFL-high three kick-return touchdowns — including two in their Week 18 loss in Buffalo — and all three came on Folk kickoffs.

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3. Will there be any coaching changes? Most assumed special teams coordinator Cam Achord would be squarely on the hot seat after his unit ranked dead last in the NFL in Football Outsiders’ DVOA this season — despite boasting an above-average kicker and the league’s best punt returner in Marcus Jones, a first-team All-Pro as a rookie.

But it appears the Patriots’ disastrous showing in the kicking game — headlined by the three allowed touchdowns and a slew of poorly timed penalties — won’t cost Achord his job. He was part of the New England coaching contingent that traveled to Las Vegas for the East-West Shrine Bowl, and reports have indicated he’s not expected to be fired.

Could he be demoted, though? That remains a possible outcome.

The obvious move would be for the Patriots to reinstall Joe Judge as special teams coordinator — a job he held from 2015-19 — and bump Achord down to assistant. Judge, who coached quarterbacks this season, also was with the team at the Shrine Bowl, but he’ll have a new role in 2023 following Bill O’Brien’s hiring as offensive coordinator/QBs coach.

The Patriots have yet to officially announce any coaching changes outside of O’Brien’s arrival, so we don’t yet know how Belichick plans to structure his new staff.

It’s also worth noting Slater, who is delaying retirement and returning for a 16th season, will be a sort of extension of the coaching staff, telling Patriots.com that his “role at this point is not just about covering kicks, blocking for returners” but also “about fostering culture, building relationships and pouring into young men.”

“That factored in huge into the decision (to keep playing),” he said, “because I feel like there are certain things you can do as a player that you can’t do as an administrator or as a staff member — things I felt like were unfinished in terms of relationships and culture.”

More positional outlooks: quarterbacks | running backs | receivers | cornerbacks | defensive line | tight ends | linebackers | offensive line