The Green Bay Packers are looking for a new special teams coordinator, the fourth under head coach Matt LaFleur, after Rich Bisaccia decided to step away from Green Bay. And while we mentioned some replacement options here, another potential solution could be inside the NFC North.

It’s Jett Modkins, the Detroit Lions assistant special teams coach. In 2025, the Lions were 10th in special teams DVOA — and over the past few years, they have been close to the top of the league in punt return and kickoff return, in particular.

Modkins started his coaching career as a defensive volunteer coach with Akron University in 2019. In 2020, he jumped to the NFL level as the Denver Broncos’ diversity coaching intern, assisting with the offense.

Lions special teams coordinator is Dave Fipp, who’s been there since 2021 and had spent eight seasons as the Philadelphia Eagles’ special teans coordinator previously. So there’s a successful background behind Jett Modkins’ schematic tree.

A rising coach for the Lions

The Lions had a lot of young up-and-coming coaches on their staff, who they have been grooming for a while. Many of those guys have gone on to take bigger jobs elsewhere in the last two offseasons, but still, there is a guy on the Lions staff who was more ready for a bigger role than Jett Modkins.

He took to his role as assistant special teams coordinator like a fish takes to water, and the Lions give him a lot of credit for helping both Kalif Raymond and Jalen Reeves-Maybin make All-Pro teams, and for helping the Lions be one of the best return teams in the NFL during his tenure.

That is where he can really help the Packers. They have a top return man in Keisean Nixon, who can bring a similar game to what Raymond brought to Detroit — especially if his defensive usage goes back to Earth in 2026.

Modkins is ready for this. The only reason he hasn’t gotten a bigger job yet is because special teams coaches don’t get turned over a lot. If he were a defensive or offensive assistant, he’d be somewhere by now as a coordinator. It was surprising, for example, that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn’t hire him — but they went the experienced route, hiring long-time Pittsburgh Steelers assistant Danny Smith instead.

After Bisaccia’s tenure didn’t bring the Packers nearly as much success as they hoped for, it may be time to look for a rising assistant. And taking one off a divisional rival could be a double win for Green Bay.

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