Falcons' biggest issue under the last coaching staff still hasn't been fixed

Special teams was an area where the Atlanta Falcons struggled under their previous regime, and the hope was that a new braintrust would be able to fix those issues. And unfortunately for the Falcons, although Marquice Williams is gone and living life in Las Vegas, the special teams are still an issue.

When the Falcons hired Kevin Stefanski to be their new head coach, he handpicked his special teams coordinator in former Miami Dolphins and Tennessee Titans STC Craig Aukerman, and Aukerman used his connections to bring in his personnel such as Nick Folk at kicker and Jake Bailey at punter.

And while Bailey and Folk (despite a slow start) have been good, that's not what the issue is here. In the 31-23 loss to the Chicago Bears, special teams play is what sunk the Falcons, but moreso because of their struggles in the return game, that offered a 10-point swing that resulted in the loss.

As we all know, rookie Zachariah Branch had two fumbles that the Bears were able to capitalize on, but that wasn't even the only issue in the return game, as while Branch was bad, Olamide Zaccheus wasn't any better. Zaccheus failed to call for a fair catch on a punt inside the 10-yard line, which saw him lose a yard on the return and the poor field position set up a three-and-out for the offense.

It's plays like that where the lack of discipline is failing to be seen on special teams. The lack of execution is on Aukerman and this special teams staff more than it is the players, and this is something that has to be addressed before it continues to cost this team games.

The Atlanta Falcons are still awful on special teams with a new coaching staff

The worst part is that the Bears' success on special teams was part of the reason they won. Compared to Atlanta's struggles in the return game, Chicago's Kalif Raymond averaged 18 yards per return on just three punt returns compared to -1 yards on three returns between Branch and Zaccheus.

This is an area where the Dirty Birds knew they struggled last year and actively sought to fix that between better personnel and a new staff, but it hasn't done much. All they were asking for was this staff to do more with a more talented unit than Marquice Williams and Raheem Morris had, which still seems like it was too much to ask.

The Falcons hired two of the worst special teams coaches in the NFL from last season in Aukerman and Chase Blackburn to lead this new special teams unit, and while the group has talent, it's safe to say the new leadership hasn't done very much with it so far--which boils down to a coaching issue.

It's hard to win games when your special teams has been negatively impacting your offense and defense in the field position game. I don't want to say Craig Aukerman and Chase Blackburn should 100% be fired yet, but he needs to turn things around, or we'll need have some tough conversations.

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