GREEN BAY, Wis. -- New special teams coordinator Ron Zook will have a different group of players to pick from for his units than Shawn Slocum did.
That's part of coach Mike McCarthy's plan to improve the Green Bay Packers' troublesome special teams.
He already fired Slocum, who ran McCarthy's special teams since 2009 and had been on his coaching staff since 2006, and his decision to give up play-calling duties was based in part on his desire to have a greater influence on the Packers' special teams and defense.
And now he has vowed to give Zook the green light to use more starters on special teams this season.
"I think we need to adjust our special teams philosophy," McCarthy said last week at the NFL scouting combine during a lengthy interview with writers who regularly cover the Packers.
"I know what it was here the last 20 years, but we had starters play more on special teams [last] year than we had in the past, and that will continue to increase. Special teams needs to be an asset, not something that we use as a stepping stone offense or defense. That's part of the charge."
Surely, that would have helped Slocum's unit, which finished last in the Dallas Morning News' annual special-teams rankings. But as is usually the case when there's a coaching change, the new coaches gets resources the old coach didn't enjoy.
"Frankly, that probably wasn't fair to Shawn in some ways," McCarthy said.
Last season, there wasn't a starter among the top-14 players in terms of special-teams participation. Safety Morgan Burnett saw the most action on special teams among starters, and he ranked 15th by appearing on 25.1 percent of the special-teams plays.
Among starters, only two other players -- linebacker Sam Barrington and safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix -- played on at least 20 percent of the special-teams plays. Barrington, who played on 24.5 percent of the special-teams plays, didn't become a starter until the second half of the season, while Clinton-Dix (22 percent) wasn't a full-time player until Week 7.
"We need to get more out of our veterans; to me, that's the hole in our special teams," McCarthy said when he announced his staff changes. "The consistency and the standard of play in our veteran players is not where it needs to be. And that will be a direct focus of mine."
Getting veterans to sell out on special teams might be where Zook, whose high-energy approach could be his biggest asset, makes his mark.
"I'm not saying they didn't buy in," Zook said. "But the emphasis is those young guys, particularly early, they're going to pay attention to what the veterans are doing. If you go back and you look at the top special teams in the league, usually their veteran guys are leading those younger guys. We have a large number of young guys. We've got to get them coached up. The system has to be in a situation where they can play simple. I don't foresee a lot of change. I think the things we did this past year were good, really good. I don't foresee a lot of change. I think once again you'e going to have new guys in there and guys that are coming back have to be better than they were."
Specifically, look for more defensive starters on Zook's units.
"That's where the fit of special teams and defense, you really want a lot of your special teams players coming from defense, particularly on your coverage units," McCarthy said at the combine.
