Tag: Chase Blackburn

2024 represents a prove-it year for Rams special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn

The Rams’ kicking game was awful in 2023. Here’s why 2024 could be a make-or-break year for special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn.

2023 was an abysmal year for the Rams’ special teams unit and the man who is on the hottest of hot seats entering the 2024 season is special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn.

The kicking game was a massive issue for the Rams last season with the team having the third-lowest field goal percentage in the NFL at 74.4 percent. While short-range attempts gave the team no problems, 40-yard attempts and beyond were an Achilles’ heel for the Rams in 2023.

They totaled 11 misses from 40-plus yards, including a 50-percent make rate from beyond 50 yards. The team’s longest field goal was from 54 yards. Only five other teams had shorter kicks.

The Rams’ kicking woes made them so desperate, that they signed 39-year-old Mason Crosby to their practice squad. Crosby was never activated as the Rams went with Brett Maher and Lucas Havirsik for kicking duties.

Maher missed six field goals and Havirsik missed five last season. They combined for five missed extra points. The Rams 86.5 extra point conversion percentage ranked second-worst in the NFL, only 1.5 percent ahead of Carolina.

Rookie Joshua Karty was the best kicker in college football last year. He has a career long of 61 and in 45 field goal attempts under 50 yards, he’s only missed twice in his career.

If Blackburn’s poor 2023 was a result of the lack of talent, 2024 should prove that Blackburn has what it takes to take the Rams’ kicking game to the level it used to be at. If not, some difficult questions will be asked pertaining Blackburn’s future with the franchise.

Rams’ abysmal special teams unit is one of the worst in NFL history

With yet another awful performance on special teams, the Rams’ unit now ranks as one of the worst in NFL history

It has not been a banner year for the Rams’ special teams unit. Los Angeles hired Chase Blackburn to replace Joe DeCamillis as the special teams coordinator but his first season with the Rams has been nothing short of a disaster.

From the kicking game to punt coverage to the return phase, everything has gone wrong on special teams for the Rams. It’s been so bad that the team has been forced to make a kicking change again ahead of the season finale after cutting Lucas Havrisik, who took over for Brett Maher.

The Rams have missed 11 field goals and 15 total kicks, both of which are the most in the NFL. Their 11 missed field goals are more than any team since 2015.

It’s bad bad.

Punter Ethan Evans ranks near the bottom of the NFL in net average (39.1 yards), in part because the coverage has been so bad. The Rams have allowed the second-most punt return yards (478) and they’re the only team to allow two touchdowns on punt returns. One was the Ravens’ walk-off in overtime and the other was a 94-yarder against the Giants on Sunday that nearly cost them a win.

Los Angeles is allowing 26.9 yards per kickoff return, which also ranks fourth-worst in the NFL. They haven’t allowed a touchdown on a kickoff return, but the tackling has been awful in that department.

All of this has resulted in one of the worst special teams performances in NFL history. According to Aaron Schatz, the Rams have the sixth-lowest special teams DVOA ever. It’s also three times worse than any other team this season, which is saying something.

Special teams has been costly for the Rams all season and it will need to improve with the playoffs approaching. They took a first step toward hopefully fixing the field goal operation by bringing back Maher on Monday after cutting Havrisik, but there’s no guarantee things will improve.

Sean McVay seems to be growing understandably frustrated with it all, too.

“It was tough,” he said of the Rams’ special teams Sunday. “There’s a lot of things that we have to be better at so I want to be careful to say too much until I’m really able to look at the totality of it all. I’m very engaged in the offense and defense, and some of the different things that didn’t occur today, we’ve got to do a better job there. That wasn’t good enough.”

Football is mostly about offense and defense, but special teams can lose you games.

Chase Blackburn explains Rams’ decision to replace Tanner Brown with Brett Maher

Chase Blackburn explained why the Rams replaced Tanner Brown with Brett Maher at kicker, citing experience and Brown’s preseason misses.

The Los Angeles Rams had rookies at kicker, punter, and long snapper entering training camp, but they’ve since elected to get more experience at the kicker position. Chase Blackburn, the new special teams coordinator for the Rams, explained why the Rams decided to replace Tanner Brown with Brett Maher.

“Yeah, at the end of the day we had three rookies, love to get a veteran in here,” Blackburn said. “Not only for the ability, he’s been through it, done it, seen it, had those playoff opportunities, had different opportunities, and seen what it’s like to be in big game environments. And so for him to come in here and give us something, especially after we got to see him for a couple days and see how well he was kicking the ball there in Denver was a big deal. And obviously, Tanner missed again in the preseason and that’s the unfortunate part about kicking is it’s about kind of a ‘what have you done for me lately’-type deal. And that’s one of the positions where you only get so many attempts or so many looks at it, especially in the preseason where we move from four games to three games now, right? So you get limited reps and limited looks in actual game activity and it’s about producing when those lights come on.”

The expectation was for Brown to be the starting kicker for the Rams this season after signing as an undrafted rookie out of Oklahoma State. But after converting only two of his four field goal attempts in the preseason, Blackburn and the Rams began looking at other options.

Maher was competing for the starting kicker spot on the Denver Broncos before the Broncos acquired Will Lutz in a trade with the New Orleans Saints. The veteran kicker would be released and the Rams didn’t waste much time signing him in hopes he could give them consistency in the kicking game.

With the Dallas Cowboys a season ago, Maher made a career-best 29 of his 32 field-goal attempts (90.6%). The only concern is that Maher missed five of his six extra-point tries in the postseason in 2022 after he made 50 of his 53 extra-point attempts in the regular season.

Experience can be crucial at the kicker spot, and with Brown’s woes in the preseason, Blackburn and the Rams believe Maher was the best choice entering Week 1.

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Rams hiring Titans assistant coach Chase Blackburn as ST coordinator

The Rams are reportedly hiring Titans assistant special teams coach Chase Blackburn as its next special teams coordinator.

The Tennessee Titans have a new assistant position to fill with the Los Angeles Rams reportedly hiring assistant special teams coach, Chase Blackburn.

The news comes from NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, who notes that the former NFL linebacker and 39-year-old coach will be taking over as the special teams coordinator for the Rams in 2023.

Prior to his one-year stint with the Titans, Blackburn served as an assistant special teams coach with the Carolina Panthers before being promoted to special teams coordinator in 2018, a position he held through 2021.

The Titans have struggled on special teams for years now, but those issues predate Blackburn’s arrival. Despite those issues, special teams coordinator Craig Aukerman has remained in his job and is entering his sixth season.

Titans fans would have jumped at the chance to replace Aukerman with any warm body, Blackburn’s included, but head coach Mike Vrabel made it quite clear he doesn’t blame the special teams coordinator at all.

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Rams hiring ex-Giant Chase Blackburn as special teams coordinator

The Los Angeles Rams are hiring former New York Giants linebacker Chase Blackburn to be their special teams coordinator.

Retired New York Giants linebacker Chase Blackburn has seen his coaching resume grow and now he’s added another line.

Blackburn has been hired by the Los Angeles Rams to be their special teams coordinator.

The Rams represent the third coaching staff Blackburn has been a part of since his retirement from the field in 2015.

Blackburn’s NFL coaching career started with the Carolina Panthers in 2016 where he began as an assistant special teams coach. After two seasons, he was promoted to special teams coordinator.

He spent the next four years in that role with the Panthers before spending the 2022 season as an assistant special teams coach with the Tennessee Titans.

Blackburn spent the first eight seasons of his playing career in Giants blue before closing out the final two years of his career with the Panthers.

Blackburn won both Super Bowl XLII and Super Bowl XLVI with the Giants and served as a team captain in 2010.

Blackburn’s most famous moment with the Giants came during Super Bowl XLVI when he was matched up with future Hall of Famer Rob Gronkowski and came away with the interception — the only turnover in that game, helping the Giants secure the victory.

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3 things to know about new Rams ST coordinator Chase Blackburn

Get to know new Rams special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn – a two-time Super Bowl champion

The Rams parted ways with Joe DeCamillis this offseason, choosing not to retain him as their special teams coordinator. He was the third coach to hold that title under Sean McVay since 2017, but the Rams are making another change.

They’re hiring Chase Blackburn as their special teams coordinator, bringing on the former NFL linebacker. He’s the Rams’ fourth ST coordinator since 2017, which is probably more than McVay would’ve liked to have.

Here are three things to know about Blackburn as he joins the Rams’ coaching staff.

Rams hiring former LB Chase Blackburn as special teams coordinator

The Rams have hired Chase Blackburn to be the team’s new special teams coordinator.

The Los Angeles Rams have made a few alterations to their coaching staff this offseason and Sean McVay is adding a former player to coach the special teams unit. According to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, the Rams are hiring Chase Blackburn to be the team’s new special teams coordinator.

Blackburn began his career in the NFL in 2005 with the New York Giants as an undrafted linebacker out of Akron. He would win two Super Bowls in his eight seasons with the Giants, making most of his contributions on special teams.

After playing the final two years of his career with the Carolina Panthers, Blackburn joined Carolina’s coaching staff in 2016 as an assistant special teams coach. The former linebacker would then serve as the special teams coordinator for the Panthers from 2018-2021 before becoming an assistant special teams coach for the Tennessee Titans in 2022.

Blackburn will become the fourth special teams coordinator under McVay after the Rams moved on from Joe DeCamillis earlier in the offseason.

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Titans’ Mike Vrabel talks potential role of assistant ST coach, Chase Blackburn

“I think we have two very good coaches there that could split those special teams duties up,” Vrabel said of Chase Blackburn and Craig Aukerman.

The Tennessee Titans made a change on their special teams coaching staff this offseason after letting Matt Edwards go and bringing in former NFL linebacker, Chase Blackburn, to take his spot.

Blackburn, who spent 10 seasons in the league, worked his way up from an assistant to special teams coordinator over six seasons on the Carolina Panthers’ coaching staff.

Titans head coach Mike Vrabel recently revealed that Blackburn will assist in evaluating special teams guys for the 2022 NFL draft, and will then work with Vrabel and special teams coordinator Craig Aukerman about kickoff return philosophy, according to Jim Wyatt of Titans Online.

“We just kind of talked about his teaching background and I felt like just his knowledge, we’re really adding a very good football coach for that role,” Vrabel explained. “Right now, without having players here, it’s about evaluating special teams guys for the draft, he’s going to assist in special teams with Craig (Aukerman), work with myself and Craig about this kickoff return philosophy and what we want to do.”

From there, Vrabel went on to say that special teams duties will be split up between the two coaches (Aukerman and Blackburn), with Blackburn working with gunners, for example, while Aukerman is elsewhere.

“And that’s where he’ll (Blackburn) be right now… I think we have two very good coaches there that could split those special teams duties up,” Vrabel said.

The Titans have seen issues across special teams in the past few years, which has led to Aukerman coming under fire from media and fans alike. Hopefully Blackburn can bring a new perspective into the building that helps Tennessee improve its special teams units in 2022.

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Report: Titans hiring Chase Blackburn as assistant special teams coach

Blackburn spent the last six seasons on the Carolina Panthers’ coaching staff.

The Tennessee Titans have reportedly found their next assistant special teams coach.

According to Joe Rexrode of The Athletic, the Titans are hiring Chase Blackburn for the role. He’ll replace Matt Edwards, who was let go by Tennessee after the 2021 campaign.

Blackburn spent the last six seasons with the Carolina Panthers before being let go after the 2021 campaign. He served as assistant special teams coach from 2016-17, and then as the special teams coordinator from 2018-21.

Before going into coaching, the 38-year-old also spent 10 seasons in the NFL, playing middle linebacker for the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers. He played his college ball at Akron.

In 132 career games (45 starts), Blackburn totaled 372 tackles, 4.5 sacks, four interceptions and 10 passes defended. His last season came in 2014 with the Panthers.

Blackburn is set to work under Titans special teams coach, Craig Aukerman, who has been in that role since being promoted from assistant special teams coach in 2018.

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Chase Blackburn says goodbye to Panthers organization after firing

Chase Blackburn, who had spent eight seasons with the Panthers as both a player and a coach, said goodbye to the organization on Tuesday.

After a terribly disappointing 2021 campaign, the Carolina Panthers will be undergoing a bit of a facelift this offseason. And unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) for special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn, he won’t be around to see this latest one through.

On Tuesday morning, head coach Matt Rhule fired a trio of his assistants as he tries to preserve himself revamp much of the team’s braintrust. Blackburn, who was part of the bunch that also included now former offensive line coach Pat Meyer and defensive line coach Frank Okam, took right to Twitter just minutes after the news broke to thank the organization and the city of Charlotte.

Before trading in his cleats for a headset, the ex-linebacker played 10 seasons between the Panthers and New York Giants. His time with Carolina, mainly as a special teams ace, saw the University of Akron product total 39 tackles from 2013 to 2014.

In 2016, Blackburn hopped back on with the franchise as an assistant special teams coach under Ron Rivera. He’d then, to much acclaim, be promoted to the coordinator spot in 2018.

The feeling around the league is that Blackburn, given the respect he’s earned amongst both his fellow coaches and players, will not be without a job for long. And while all good things must come to an end, new ones will assuredly be in store for the 38-year-old.

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