Matt LaFleur is the right person to lead the Packers.
There are still some crazies out there that think that LaFleur shouldn’t be the head coach. Yet, he has done more than most people give him credit for.
In fact, I would argue that LaFleur is a top five coach in the NFL. Since 2019, Green Bay’s coach with perfectly coiffed hair has a winning percentage of .670, which is below Andy Reid’s .770, but better than Kyle Shanahan’s .629 and Sean McDermott’s .630.
And you cannot understate how well LaFleur handled the transition from Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love. That could’ve easily gone sideways, but LaFleur sidestepped a potential disaster and guided Love to a 32-touchdown, 11-interception season in 2023 in his first full season as the starter.
With all eyes on LaFleur when he came to Green Bay, he confidently tallied three straight 13-win seasons to earn a 39-10 regular season — no head coach has had more regular season wins in their first three seasons.
“The fact that they’re 13-4 and they’ve had to go over some mountains in a year in which none of us even knew if Rodgers was going to play, in the midst of all that,” said ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky in 2022. “And just the way the team is playing, it’s not just Aaron (Rodgers) throwing for 50 touchdowns like he did last year — he’s the coach of the year.”
The knock on LaFleur is when the regular season ends and the postseason begins. He owns a 3-5 playoff record, including first round exits in 2021 and 2024.
Despite that, the team believes in him and knows that he is always putting the best team on the field. Whether that’s in 12 personnel — my favorite — with Tucker Kraft and Luke Musgrave on the field or going guns ablazing with Matthew Golden, Jayden Reed, Romeo Doubs, Dontayvion Wicks and Savion Williams.
In an NFL that has turned into a copycat league, LaFleur isn’t afraid to do his own thing. And that’s commendable. With all of the Packers passing weapons, he could easily just pass it 60 percent of the time, but the Packers ran the ball over 52 percent of the time last year. And I would even expect that number to rise thanks to Love’s scrambling ability and him being healthy.
The natives are getting restless for a deep playoff run. The talent pool is deep on both sides of the ball and even the kicker might be one of the best weapons on the team.
This year, I am looking forward to seeing LaFleur play chess. He has all the pieces he wants. He has a very good quarterback that he trusts and a quarterback that has put his trust in LaFleur.
Barring any unforeseen injuries, this season will be LaFleur’s capstone project. There aren’t many teams that will be able to stop this team consistently because of all the motion and play-action. Defenses won’t be able to cheat at the line of scrimmage to stop the run because they have burners to get by the defense.
You can disagree all you want, but LaFleur is a top five coach in this league. And he’s about to prove it this season.