(GREEN BAY PACKERS) – The Green Bay Packers have named Cam Achord special teams coordinator. Head Coach Matt LaFleur made the announcement Friday.
(AY-cord) Achord comes to the Packers with 10 years of experience coaching special teams in the NFL, including four seasons as a coordinator. Over the past two seasons he served as assistant special teams coach with the New York Giants (2024-25). Last season he helped coach a unit that returned 70 kickoffs for a single-season franchise-record 1,942 yards (27.7 avg.), surpassing the previous record of 1,688 yards set in 1964. The Giants’ 27.7 kickoff return average was the second-highest mark in a single season in franchise history and ranked No. 5 among all NFL teams in 2025. In 2024, the Giants had two players earn NFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors. Isaiah Simmons was named the Week 5 recipient after he blocked Seattle’s Jason Myers 47-yard game-tying field goal attempt that Bryce-Ford Wheaton caught and returned it 60 yards for the clinching touchdown. Ihmir Smith-Marsette was the second Giant to earn the honor after he returned a kickoff 100 yards for a TD in Week 17.
Before New York, Achord spent six years coaching special teams for the New England Patriots, first as assistant special teams coach from 2018-19 and then as the special teams coordinator from 2020-23. The Patriots finished No. 3 in the NFL with a 26.2-yard kickoff return average in 2023 while their coverage team was No. 6, allowing an average 20.6 yards. In 2022, Achord led a unit ranked No. 1 in the NFL with 418 punt return yards and No. 3 with 1,274 total return yards as rookie Marcus Jones earned first-team All-Pro honors from The Associated Press as a punt returner after he ranked No. 2 in total return yards (1,007) and punt return average (10.7 yards), and No. 1 in punt return yards (362), and had the longest punt return (84 yards). In 2020, the Patriots ranked No. 1 in Rick Gosselin’s annual rankings of all 32 NFL teams’ special teams. That season and in 2021, New England ranked No. 4 in opponent kickoff return starting field position. Gunner Olszewski earned first-team All-Pro honors from the AP as a punt returner in 2020 after leading the league in punt return yards (346) and average (17.3 yards, including a 70-yard TD).
Prior to his time in the NFL, Achord spent five seasons with Southwest Mississippi Community College (2013-17), where he served as the offensive, special teams, and recruiting coordinator, and coached quarterbacks, running backs and tight ends. In 2012, he was an offensive graduate assistant, working with the quarterbacks, at the University of Southern Mississippi and in 2010-11 he was a special teams graduate assistant and worked with the linebackers for the Golden Eagles. Achord was a four-year starter at free safety at Belhaven University, serving as a team captain in 2008 and 2009.
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