LaFleur and Rodgers operate as part millennial Vince LombardiBart Starr and part bickering old married coupleif the old married couple won 80 percent of their football games and designed an offense that combined classic Shanahan-McVay principles with Rodgerss ability to lay waste to entire Midwestern cities. In the IFL, teams traveled to games via 15- or 20-hour bus rides, and afterward, Ragsdale said, bruised and bloodied players would pile onto the bus and beg the driver to stop for beer and some sandwiches for the long postgame drive. Theres a lot of unknowns that need to be answered, and until we figure out all of that, I dont really know. Mason Crosby connected to narrow the gap to four points. 1 in the progression in 80 percent of concepts, and its not going to be like that this year. A new seasonand the Wisconsin coldis coming. He really didnt like the feeling of not knowing everything, so he made it his job to know everything., McDaniel immediately noticed that LaFleur was a quarterback specialist who was obsessed with learning run blocking and line play. Not saying theyre gonna learn anything, but I didnt take advantage of that time., I didnt learn ball ball until I got to the National Football League, he said. That now-famous Washington staff included both Shanahans (Kyle as offensive coordinator), LaFleur (quarterbacks coach), McVay (tight ends coach) and McDaniel (offensive assistant turned wide receivers coach). With more help at the tight end spot coming in the form of Tucker Kraft, an extra edge rusher in Colby Wooden and Virginia's Dontayvion Wicks for receiver depth, the Packers pretty much hit on all of their picksoutside of the Sean Clifford pick. His unit cost the Packers a deep playoff run. Green Bay hasnt selected a wide receiver in the first round since taking Javon Walker from Florida State with the 20th overall pick in 2002. He is one of 49 members on the Pro Football Hall of Fame selectors board and one of nine members on the Seniors Committee. He gets reflective. One look at the Green Bay Packers depth chart shows they must find additional playmakers for Jordan Love as he prepares to take over at quarterback. This period ended organicallya meeting here, a play there, a series of expansive Zoom calls before the 2020 season. I dont want to discredit the fact that hes a perfect fit for any scheme, but we would literally talk about that amongst each other, LaFleur said. While he also had three interceptions over the same span, it can be attributed to part of the growing pains that a young quarterback will have with the lack of snaps afforded to him. McDaniel explained that in 2009, the Texans let him go after he overslept for a handful of meetings. Citing the Packers traditional reluctance to take a pass catcher in the first round and the lack of safety prospects worth selecting that early, McShay suggested Green Bay might take a pass rusher at No. I just have so much trust in these guys that they are doing the right thing, LaFleur says. Staying disciplined on that is a constant challenge for me, LaFleur said. So I think a lot of people say, Oh OK, youve got a Hall of Fame quarterback. But Matts a big reason that the Hall of Fame quarterback won the MVP the last two years., A lot of people want to discredit him because he has a Hall of Fame quarterback, but the reality is hes done a phenomenal job capturing a really cool locker room in terms of star players and talent and getting them all to play at a very high level, said Jets coach Robert Saleh, a longtime friend and former coworker of LaFleurs. His name was Kyle Shanahan, and hed been promoted from quarterbacks coach under Gary Kubiak. I said, You know how I feel, but I was going to let him have his space and make whatever decision he thought was best for him. Despite all that was lost that day, more trust was won. Assuming the Packers stay at 15, this would be just their second top-15 overall pick in the past 14 drafts. Hes not confrontational, but hes not afraid of conflict, McDaniel said. I want him to hear why I like something or why he might not like something, because if hes not comfortable Im not going to call it., Matt Ryan, who LaFleur worked with as quarterbacks coach in Atlanta in 2015 and during Ryans MVP season in 2016, remembers how much translating went into learning the offense, how different the terminology was and how much trust it took. LaFleurs approach was to lock arms with Rodgers, as much as Rodgers was willing, and he set out to blend the Shanahan system he had been a part of for eight of the previous nine years with the plays and concepts Rodgers favored. I definitely spent my time on the sticks, he says. In the team's virtual meetings, there were far more. The Shanahan-McVay origins are what drew the Packers interest in LaFleur after firing McCarthy, knowing that maximizing the quarterback was going to be the most important piece of the puzzle. Take for instance, LaFleurs first year. I know a lots been speculated, Oh, theyre gonna lean more on the run game. Well, maybe. Different late-season rest regiment, play-calling, practice tweaks, anything? But ahead of an all-important season, the fourth-year Packers . LaFleur takes his hat and starts to sign the bill before the man asks him to sign the front. McVays viewpoint on playoff mentality is simple: The best team doesnt always win. He has been the force that keeps the team a team. Is this where that bald-headed son of a bitch Bob Barringer lives? the caller demanded to know. I wasted a lot of my life playing. I explain that I dont think it was a waste, as were sitting on a training table in the massive indoor practice facility of the team hes led to 39 wins in three years. Rodgers appreciated his coachs stance, even if it wasnt verbalized at a podium. In fact, the trend started well before the arrival of Rodgers, who is expected to get traded to the New York Jets before the start of the next season. The partnership between LaFleur and Rodgers now is 53 games old. Its so cool, he said, to see your entire friend group rise up in your profession with you. I didnt know, I didnt want to ask [Rodgers], I didnt want to push it and make it go the other way. Rodgers signed a new contract a few days later. LaFleur is the dad in the passenger seat with the 15-year-old with their temps. I wanted him to do what made him happy, because I think too many times we forget these players are people, first and foremost. Tight end Jace Sternberger (2019 third-round pick) and wide receiver Amari Rodgers (2021) left the organization within two years. I dont need a lot of fluff or convolution. Lets find what the issue actually is and get to the root of what were talking about. Matthew Patrick LaFleur ( / lflur / l-FLOO-r; [2] born November 3, 1979 [1]) is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). The NFL announced Friday that LaFleur will be the NFC coach for the 2022 Pro Bowl, while Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel will coach the AFC.. LaFleur's Packers and Vrabel's Titans were both the No. And LaFleur moved past the question almost impossibly quickly. He has a calmness to him, Murphy said. Trust from the locker room will be crucial as he tries to fill the crater in his offense left by the trade of Adams, whose desire was to play for the Raiders. But privately, he extended a hand. An NFL coach having three rules and only three rules is not ground-breaking. I was learning from him, not the other way around, McVay said of LaFleur. Rodgers accuses LaFleur of having his wife, BreAnne, manicure those brows, which are dark, not too bushy and not too sparse. You can change your choices at any time by clicking on the 'Privacy dashboard' links on our sites and apps. To Matt this may have been meaningful, but it doesnt even stick in my brain. You can tell Aaron respects Matt because theres some stuff Ive never seen him do, and the offense is different from when Matt started.. Green Bay Packers Head Coach Matt LaFleur GREEN BAY - Matt LaFleur and the Packers put football on the back burner this past week. Its not about me, its about everybody else. On the postgame stage, LaFleur steps in front of the targeted and invites fire. John Madden had them. When LaFleur worked for Dan Quinn on the Falcons in 2015 and 16, Quinn had three rules. And we need to make sure that were manifesting through our words the reality we want to achieve. LaFleur is fine with the cold now. I didnt understand exactly how to talk to him, and he didnt exactly understand how to talk to me, Rodgers says. For LaFleur, establishing himself as a first-time head coach in 2019 was one thing. Then, Rodgers explains, LaFleur can make fun of the tempo plays Rodgers asked for, or correct him. As a leader, you have to own everything, he explains. Whether its real or not doesnt matter. But he also took the blame for the loss, saying he failed to tell Rodgers he wouldnt have a fourth down to try to convert. Is he trying to get under my skin to rile me up? I tried to play a poker face as best I could, but internally, my heart might have skipped a beat or two. LaFleur said the jokes came from multiple guests at the wedding. The depth of this draft class at receiver and particularly at tight end could push the Packers toward using the 15th overall pick to address other needs, such as adding a safety or a pass rusher. Go to where you feel you can get a big pass play. I didnt really take advantage of that, he said. I didnt spend time watching tape with [my dad] or anything like that. He will do something even if its worse for him. Glenn Erby. He wanted to give Rodgers time and space. LaFleur acknowledges it took a minute for him and Rodgers to get on the same page. It is a web of inside jokes and roasts that hasnt ended despite their respective rises up the ranks. You might see them greet them, but this was legitimately asking them questions, spending time with them.. On the day I was at practice, a reporter asked LaFleur whether he was worried about Rodgers being suspended for admitting to using ayahuasca on a podcast. Oops. It's the latest. He was just very humble and such a perfectionist at that point in his career that it made him really mad when he didnt know things. The pro game, McDaniel said, was a specific world compared to other levels of football, and the other staff members in Houston were deeply rooted in it. authenticate users, apply security measures, and prevent spam and abuse, and, display personalised ads and content based on interest profiles, measure the effectiveness of personalised ads and content, and, develop and improve our products and services. He is, and I mean this with all sincerity, out of all the people that Ive known in life, in this profession or not, the most trustworthy human being Ive ever met, McDaniel said. I thought (Clements would) be great for him. But what if youre playing against a defense that says all right and is gonna load up the box? If there was a vacancy on his staff, LaFleur wanted to be prepared. Now, heres the hard part: On March 18, the Packers traded away All-Pro receiver Davante Adams for a first- and second-round pick. But if there is one thing that Love has learned from flying under Rodgers' wing, it is that he has made strides towards becoming a better on-field leader. And the return of Rodgers whose history suggests he will bring out the best in other receivers looks even more significant now than Adams is a Raider. Many times, the lessons you learn from defeats are most impactful than what you learn from when you succeed.. Players feed off their coaches. I spent the majority of my offseason, I would say, trying to defuse the situation as best as we could, LaFleur says. Everybody knows coaches are almost inept about everyday activities like dressing themselves, doing laundry or self-grooming, Rodgers says. Matt LaFleur will coach one more game this season. Matt LaFleur, the new head coach for the Green Bay Packers, is married to wife BreAnne, is the father of two boys, and has a brother who is also involved in the National Football League. Whats so exciting about this league is when there is a situation like this, it seems to me guys will always step up and assume the role. But the team that plays the best in that three-hour window wins, he told me. I am competing with myself every single day, competing with what I was yesterday. I have 100 percent trust with him. The only issue was Rodgers was in the middle of a cleanse. He's going to be the guy in the huddle and he's got to be an extension of us. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and head coach Matt LaFleur watch from the sideline during the second half of an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions, Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022, in . I want to be held accountable, Rodgers says. He guesses that if he called him 20 minutes before a Packers game and hes got a problem, LaFleur might skip the pregame speech. It goes back to his communication and the relationships he built., After playing at Saginaw Valley State in University Center, Michigan, where he rewrote SVSU record books and led them to the Division II playoffs, LaFleur went to the Indoor Football Leaguea league for people who say, You keep playing until you cant, said Dan Ragsdale, who was both a quarterback and offensive coordinator for the IFLs Billings Outlaws in 2004. Aaron Rodgers was a couple of thousand miles from Green Bay, and as far as the Packers knew, his mind might have been further. While the Packers rarely draft receivers in the first round, theyve had great success finding them in the second including Greg Jennings (2006), Jordy Nelson (2008), Randall Cobb (2011), Davante Adams (2014) and Watson (2022). Green Bay hasnt selected a wide receiver in the first round since taking Javon Walker from Florida State with the 20th overall pick in 2002. LaFleur draws a line from those experiences to now, when he has to drown out noise on a weekly basis. Sign up and stay up to date with our daily newsletter. To win consistently the way he has is not appreciated enough., His quarterback, though, has a different take: Its because he just won the lottery, man. "I've praised Mason up here a . LaFleur has not indicated, at any point, that he wants acknowledgment for what the Packers have achieved with him at the helm. Were going to have to add some bodies to that room, coach Matt LaFleur said last month at the NFLs owners meetings. This is their job and I expect them to come to work ready to play. You dont always see the superstars do that, LaFleur says. Knowing that we both come to it just wanting to do whats best for the team and with love and respect for each other.. And the onus will be on coaches to figure out how to help these players find success. Talk to any former Shanahan assistant and youll get the same response. Initially, there was some negotiation about how much freedom Rodgers would be given to make adjustments at the line of scrimmage. For some coaches, failures beget more failures. I am not trying to compete with anybody else in the league. He also learned how everything ties together: Sometimes, he said, youll trade in a 3-yard pass in order to set up an explosive pass. The Packers also have one pick each in the second, third and fourth rounds, two picks in the fifth and four in the seventh. "We're going to have to add some bodies to that room," coach Matt LaFleur said last month at the NFL's owners meetings. He mentions Tom Clementswho just returned as the Packers quarterbacks coach and who coached him earlier in his careerand former quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt, now the offensive coordinator in Cleveland, as people whove given him extremely granular tasks to improve on each day. The best coaches push you to do things that youre uncomfortable with, Ryan says. He has such a calm, cool demeanor that I think anybody would gravitate towards him.. Great hairline, great smile, and he dresses sharp.. Matt never told me this, I didnt find it out until years later, McDaniel said. And until he started getting all that positive deal about what a hot coach he was, now hes finally letting somebody else cut his hair. LaFleur has confirmed this bombshell. In multiple conversations over the two days after the end of the Packers season, LaFleur made sure Rodgers knew how much he was wanted. Instead of having the entire team stay at a hotel the night before the game, which is customary for NFL teams, LaFleur allowed veterans to stay home. The most common answer is obvious. Four years ago, LaFleur was hired to get Aaron Rodgers back to an elite level after a sharp decline in production. They give credit to worse-looking guys, guys with terrible eyebrows and terrible hairlines, and hes blessed. LaFleurs retorts usually arent for public consumption. The Packers took Christian Watson in the second round and Romeo Doubs in the fourth last year, but theyre the only Green Bay wideouts currently under contract who had at least 100 yards receiving last season. And Rodgers. We live in this. But the Packers never used a first-round pick on a wide receiver or tight end throughout four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers 18 seasons in Green Bay. The affection Rodgers has for his head coach is evident in the way he makes fun of him publicly. More than 48,000 people died by suicide in the US in 2021 . When LaFleur was a kid, family members called him Matty. Three of his childhood friends still call him that. LaFleur starts an impression of a midwestern grandma: Why yes it is, and of course, the caller was disarmed. Nobody wants any of these guys to be miserable when theyre coming to work. Packers can shore up pivotal role in Matt LaFleur's offense with tight ends in 2023 NFL Draft. While playing in Kalamazoo, LaFleur was the backup to Tim Lester, who would eventually become Western Michigan's head coach from 2017 to 2022. Youre exactly right., So, its a dance of, how do we show up for each other? I like practical coaching that makes sense and honest, direct conversation. "I don't really anticipate a whole . That move could lead to the exit of free agent Mason Crosby, who has a franchise-record 1,918 career points over 17 seasons. Please enter a valid email and try again. He found a way to relate to godlike Aaron Rodgers.. The Eagles entered the draft with six selections, including the tenth and 30th overall pick and a second and third-rounder. The Case for Matt LaFleur. He sat with them, ate lunch and showed genuine interest in their interests. The credentials, or the journey to get the credentials, though, are important. If you would like to customise your choices, click 'Manage privacy settings'. Serving mainly as Rodgers' backup for the past two seasons, Love has had some chances to showcase what Green Bay fans can expect from him after logging three total touchdowns and 606 yards while completing 60.2 percent of his passes. It was a comfort. Matt LaFleur wins games at a higher clip than any pro football coach in history. Certainly, there are adjustments, LaFleur says. They had lunch al fresco and talked about how Clements could help the Packers. Green Bay Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy spoke with Larry McCarren at the NFL Annual Meetings in Phoenix. He creates an environment where he gets all the fluff out of the way and all that matters is studying the tape and getting the most out of players every single day.. Dillon give the Packers one of the NFLs top running back tandems. Holmgren is in the Packers Hall of Fame and soon could be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. When asked about defensive coordinator Joe Barry, LaFleur revealed that he didn't anticipate making any changes to the coaching staff for the 2023 season. That would be a steal.. LaFleur claims he is the only one who touches his eyebrows. It wasnt until probably about the last year that [Matt] was having somebody cut his own hair other than himself, McVay said. His departure has firmly entrenched Jordan Love as the Packers star quarterback Head coach Matt LaFleur is all in on his new lead guy The Green Bay Packers have begun the process of moving on. LaFleur has said he learned to cut his own hair during college. The three rules require trust because there is much left assumed with only three. So he was no. The 2023 NFL draft is a wrap, as the rich continue to get richer in Philadelphia. So hes like, Whatever, Im not gonna concern myself with the trivial nature of getting mad. He just wants to know the answer.. The wedding story starts where all LaFleur stories do: with the coach trying to give everyone space to be themselves. The Green Bay Packers have begun the process of moving on from the Aaron Rodgers era. Im sure hes not gonna sit there saying, When I was with the Omaha Beef in 2003, I hit my fifth step like this but theres something to be said for a guy who understands the position, Ragsdale said of LaFleur.