LaFleur has been through A LOT in his five years in Green Bay.
Matt LaFleur just completed his fifth season as head coach of the Green Bay Packers but don’t let his record fool you.
The man has been *through it* since taking over before the 2019 season.
If anyone deserves a quiet and normal offseason, it’s him.
He barely got moved into his house in Wisconsin five years ago when the questions began to start: How will LaFleur coexist with quarterback Aaron Rodgers? How will “the audible thing” work? Who’s really running the offense?
He spent all offseason answering that but the results on the field spoke volumes in his first season. Green Bay finished with a 13-3 record and an NFC Championship appearance.
With one year under his belt, LaFleur might have thought his second year would be different and he could just focus on football and have a regular offseason and season. He and Rodgers had worked well together and things looked bright in Green Bay moving forward.
Things ended up anything but normal in 2020, both in the Packers franchise and the world at large.
First, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and changed everything a month or so before the NFL Draft. How would the league pull off their first big event after the Super Bowl? Would they even have a regular season? It’s weird to think about it now four years later but these were legitimate questions being asked at the time.
The league did eventually hold its draft that year and that’s when LaFleur was thrown his next curveball.
The Packers stunned everyone and traded up for quarterback Jordan Love. It was a move that incensed Rodgers (more on that in a moment) even if people forgot he wasn’t one of the league’s best in 2019. Hindsight makes the pick much more bearable now, but at the time not many understood there were legitimate reasons Green Bay took Love.
Then came playing football during a pandemic and playing in an empty Lambeau Field for a vast majority of the season. Even four years later, those images still seem surreal even if it is still very recent history. It just serves as a reminder how quickly things can change in our world in an instant.
There was no further proof of that than in 2021. The world slowly started to return to normal that year, and maybe LaFleur could enjoy a regular offseason for the first time as an experienced coach.
That all changed on draft day that year as reports came out that Rodgers was fed up with the Packers and apparently would never play for the organization again. As rumors of a draft day trade fizzled, a three-month-long saga and standoff between Rodgers had just begun. Eventually, there was some semblance of peace and Rodgers arrived with fanfare to training camp, albeit with an airing of grievances on day one.
LaFleur again steadied the ship and The Packers ended up having another successful regular season but flamed out in the divisional round. Rodgers however did win another MVP. Now once again the question came up: was Rodgers done in Green Bay?
In the midst of that debate, the Packers traded arguably the best receiver in team history Davante Adams to the Las Vegas Raiders. How would that affect the quarterback? Clearly not much because soon after the trade it was announced the Packers and Rodgers agreed to a new extension making him the highest paid player in the league in early 2022
Rodgers said at the time he planned on retiring a Packer “unless they trade me.” He also said he’d evaluate his future again after the season but LaFleur said he’d welcome Rodgers back as long as he wanted to play.
After a rough 8-9 2022 season that saw an influx of youth at receiver, LaFleur and the Packers knew a divorce was coming. Rodgers announced in March his intention to play again but this time for the New York Jets, asking for a trade that took until the start of the draft to finalize.
The trade meant another weird offseason for LaFleur. This time he’d be getting Love ready to take over the mantle of starting quarterback. How Love would perform was anyone’s guess and LaFleur’s future hung in the balance as much as that of the Packers franchise.
Early on this season, it looked like the head coach would be in for another doozy of an offseason in 2024 with Love struggling and a specter of a summer quarterback competition looming in the distance.
Then it all started to click.
The Packers young playmakers matured before our very eyes and, sure enough, it looked like the Packers hit paydirt on a third consecutive franchise quarterback.
Love finished the season as one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, and the Packers not only made the playoffs but came within a whisker of making it to the NFC Championship Game.
The Packers have their franchise quarterback, who will undoubtedly get an extension this spring or summer and there are no “will he or won’t he?” games.
LaFleur finally, FINALLY, gets an offseason where it can be about nothing but football. No drama with a quarterback, no surprising bombshell draft pick to have to justify, just football. (Note: I’m not including world events in that list because I don’t want to put that out in the ether AND they’re really hard to predict!)
The biggest move of the offseason was the firing of Joe Barry and the hiring of Jeff Hadley to replace him, but that was an expected (and needed) move. The pending decision about David Bakhtiari is the only other one with potential drama around it and even then the Packers are fine with or without him.
LaFleur has shown repeatedly he’s one of the best offensive minds and that’s been with chaos surrounding him more often than not. Just imagine how good he can be with quiet around him and full attention to the on-field product.
It’s a welcome change for the coach, the team, and their fans. For once, the end of another season didn’t feel like something was coming to an end or at the very least entering a time of uncertainty.
Instead, the Packers and LaFleur find themselves at a new beginning.
Packers fans can’t wait to see what comes next.
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