First-year coach Matt LaFleur has a chance to lead the Green Bay Packers to an NFC championship and a trip to Super Bowl 54 against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night. But ahead of an all-important season, the fourth-year Packers coach knows he still has questions to answerand a big opportunity to do just that. The likelihood that free-agent safety Adrian Amos plays elsewhere this upcoming season means the Packers must restock the position. The league reflects their image now and they are having a great time with it. That move could lead to the exit of free agent Mason Crosby, who has a franchise-record 1,918 career points over 17 seasons. 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 . Those are some of the most special memories my kids will have, LaFleur says of interactions with Rodgers. On March 5, the world was still awaiting confirmation that the NFLs reigning most valuable player planned to return to Green Bay. Five months after that, hes back making fun of his coachs hair. I really sit back and think, here we are, with the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League. He was one of the best NCAA players Ive ever faced., The two would play for hours, alternating between playing as Central Michigan, where their father, Denny, was an assistant, or Florida State or Notre Dame. In LaFleur's first three seasons, they had 13, 11 and 13 turnovers. That is what is unfolding in Green Bay. They have this really cool working relationship thats two competitors who can really find a common ground to get things done. Oops. He did not. 1 in the progression in 80 percent of concepts, and its not going to be like that this year. A lot of people said, Oh a 5-foot-10 quarterback cant play college ball, so I got used to drowning stuff out. LaFleur tells the story of the time, famous in his family, when his grandmother answered the phone after his grandfathera Kalamazoo, Michigan, high school coachlost a game. Who that will be, I dont know yet.. I thought he would be great for everybody in that room, all our quarterbacks, LaFleur says. Also at the wedding was Packers coach Matt LaFleur, who had the opportunity at the reception to lead Rodgers to the bar, offer him something strong and straight up, and make a pitch for Rodgers to come home with him. Mark Murphy 1-on-1: 'Health and safety' still a big focus for the NFL. But right now, Aaron Rodgers needs me to understand something: that he trolls LaFleur constantly. Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst, president Mark Murphy and director of football operations Russ Ball also were involved in the discussions. Theres nothing he cannot do. The Green Bay Packers announced running back Kylin Hill and punter Amari Rodgers, both 2021 draft picks, were released this week following Sunday's overtime victory over the Cowboys. In. But this only hardened LaFleurs resolve to not say anything. The Eagles entered the draft with six selections, including the tenth and 30th overall pick and a second and third-rounder. LaFleur has the same job: Make Rodgerss tape look better than it used to be, an increasingly high bar. 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). If that means staying in their own home, in their own bed, do that.. Lets find what the issue actually is and get to the root of what were talking about. When LaFleur realized how perturbed Rodgers was last offseason, Rodgers said his coach was on the next flight to visit him in Malibu, Calif. That was definitely meaningful to me, Rodgers says. Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur turned down a chance to make the Super Bowl. Its about whether youre willing to put in the grind and work your tail off to accomplish what they need.. Josiah Deguara, who had 13 catches for 114 yards last season, is the top tight end under contract. But Rodgers did not love all of the motion in the offense. He's going to be the guy in the huddle and he's got to be an extension of us. Its also a reason Rodgers was voted the leagues most valuable player the last two years. It was another to earn the trust of an independent-minded, future Hall of Fame quarterback who reputedly could be as cold as a Lambeau Field goal post in January. Take for instance, LaFleurs first year. Thats artwork to me., His success, said Bengals coach Zac Taylor, who was on the 2017 Rams staff with LaFleur, it is so hard to do in this league. After GM Howie Roseman made seven trades, Philadelphia finished the weekend with seven picks and more 2024 ammo. Please enter a valid email and try again. I didnt understand exactly how to talk to him, and he didnt exactly understand how to talk to me, Rodgers says. The credentials, or the journey to get the credentials, though, are important. Holmgren is in the Packers Hall of Fame and soon could be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Arthur Smith said he sees it took Matt LaFleur all day to come up with a response to his joking barb Tuesday. LaFleur gave that same freedom to Rodgers after last season, when the quarterback was unsure whether he wanted to keep playing. I think the ball can bounce either wayI dont want this to come off sounding like an excuse, because it is what it is. One of the most obvious and clichd observations about pro football is also the most true: The head-coach-quarterback relationship is the most important part of the franchise. LaFleurs winning percentage of .796 is better than the winning percentages of Curly Lambeau and Vince Lombardi. While some figured it was a foregone conclusion that the Packers would pick up the fifth-year option on their 2020 first-round draft pick at a $20.272 million fully guaranteed price tag for the 2024 season Gutekunst turned down the opportunity after the draft ended to flat-out say that yes, Love will indeed have his option picked up. The most common answer is obvious. A good relationshipone where each person erases the others mistakes and both make each other bettercan win you a Super Bowl. For some coaches, failures beget more failures. So now I can say, Matt, every freaking play in this practice has motion on it. You have to learn from every situation you are in, LaFleur says. Sign up and stay up to date with our daily newsletter. LaFleurs beginnings have been more successful than the beginnings of his Packers predecessor, who also inherited a Hall of Fame quarterback. 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. This part was all LaFleur, his personality, his upbringing and perspective. After the Saints stunned the Packers 38-3 in the opening game of the 2021 season, LaFleur said, Obviously, I didnt get these guys ready to play ball.. We got to see that early on from Matty.. On the third-and-goal play from the 8 before the field goal, Rodgers threw an incompletion to Davante Adams instead of trying to run even though he appeared to have space. He watched Ryan Tannehill throw it as well as anyone in the league. LaFleur has one year remaining on his initial Packers contract, and the team holds another option year. Its still tricky for him, he said. They selected Michigan outside linebacker Rashan Gary with the No. The story of this era of Packers football is about the merging of two of the most monumental forces in modern football: Rodgerss talent and the Shanahan-McVay playbook, whose variations have revolutionized a handful of teams, including both Super Bowl participants last year and three of the four conference finalists. It was well-received, so LaFleur instituted a new policy that vets never have to stay at the team hotel on the night before home games. And so does Kyle Shanahan, who LaFleur worked for in Houston, Washington, and Atlantathough Shanahan calls it drift. It can be, LaFleur said, an uncomfortable play for the quarterback: a quick-hitting, five-step pass (or six steps if youre moving to the left) from under center. During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers kiddingly said his toe issue, later revealed to be a fracture, was COVID toe. This only grew with time: LaFleur wanted to have direct conversations because he felt it was the only way to get the answers to his endless football curiosity. I hope my kids want toif this is what they want to do. Winning 13 games three seasons in a row seems like an easy proposition with Aaron Rodgers under center. An NFL coach having three rules and only three rules is not ground-breaking. Certainly we made our fair share of mistakes because they made plays and we didnt. And then last year against the 49ers in the divisional round: Obviously our defense balled out and we didnt play up to our standard offensively or on special teams., LaFleur said hes talked often with McVay about the playoffs. That shit doesnt bother me, LaFleur said. I told him Im here for him and I support him, LaFleur says. He is one of 49 members on the Pro Football Hall of Fame selectors board and one of nine members on the Seniors Committee. We just named a quarterback assistant, Connor Lewis. On ESPNs Jan. 3 Manningcast for Monday Night Football, Rodgers joked about his coachs eyebrows and hair and also pointed out his game-day attire has included Jordans, lululemon pants and a quarter-zip sweater. I put it to nearly everyone I spoke with for this story: Why doesnt LaFleur get as many plaudits as he should? Theres a play called strike in the Packers playbook. They are squared on the edges, like elongated rectangles. 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. They ask you to do a lot of things with your back to the defense. Daily. 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. Theres a lot of trust built up at this point between Matt and our players to protect them and put their best interest at heart and ultimately get the team thats going to be fresher whenever we play, says Darryl Franklin, LaFleurs chief of staff. But ahead of an all-important season, the fourth-year Packers . Last year he lost to Mike Vrabel by 28 votes, and the prior two years he didnt even finish second. Staying disciplined on that is a constant challenge for me, LaFleur said. He guesses that if he called him 20 minutes before a Packers game and hes got a problem, LaFleur might skip the pregame speech. 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. If I see any other quarterback do something, I say, We can do that. I just tell our staff, the only thing that limits us is our own imagination.. He didnt know everything, and that really bothered him, McDaniel said. LaFleur showed up with a bottle of scotch, the kind stores keep in a case behind the counter. He walks down the air-conditioned hallway back to his office. And at that stage, 99 percent of coaches wouldnt have had that security. Thats kind of how my family rolls, LeFleur says. Theyre always the most important. The more of it LaFleur gets, the more of it he gives. [Adding] another young coach on staff, he wasnt threatened by me joining the party. He was a joy to coach, not only a great player but a great person, a great competitor and leader on our football team. The partnership between LaFleur and Rodgers now is 53 games old. And then LaFleur backed off. Can we take some motion off to get some tempo practice? And he can say yes without being sensitive, Rodgers says. Its not why we were there. And Rodgers. The Packers drafted Auburn kicker Anders Carlson in the sixth round on Saturday. The Packers are picking 15th overall after going 8-9 last season, missing the playoffs and ending a string of three straight NFC North titles. "I don't really anticipate a whole . LaFleur has won two playoff games as a head coach but has yet to lead his team to a Super Bowlthis despite earning a first-round playoff bye in each of his three seasons. He has some really finely kept eyebrows.. Matty Im sure knew this was a possibility, Rodgers says of the controversy. For some strange reason, LaFleur promoted from . 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. The third round has been disastrous for the Packers recently. LaFleur was a former undersized midwestern quarterback and the son of a MAC coach. The Packers never got the ball back and lost the game. They had lunch al fresco and talked about how Clements could help the Packers. You want to earn that trust, and then you want to keep it, Campbell said. For LaFleur, establishing himself as a first-time head coach in 2019 was one thing. Matt never told me this, I didnt find it out until years later, McDaniel said. You might see them greet them, but this was legitimately asking them questions, spending time with them.. As we walk through the tunnels of Lambeau Field, he explains that, like everyone, he cares what people think of him, but he tries hard to only value the opinion of his family, coaches, and players. Theres no question in my mind I could trust him with anything. You dont always see the superstars do that, LaFleur says. Sean McVay, too. And, of course, how often each would pound the table for a particular concept. It is unprecedented turnover in this new era of loosened . Its going to be more of a group effort.. Teams are going to practice what theyve seen on tape, so take what theyve practiced and run the counter to it. Kyle and Matt were huge mentors of mine. Its going to be different guys at different times. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL, Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur speaks during the NFC head coaches availability at the NFL football meetings, Tuesday, March 28, 2023, in Phoenix. I promise you [the other team is] colder than we are. The way he does it is organic and yet purposeful. Matt LaFleur will coach one more game this season. Ill always wish him well.. Aaron is a great player, said Mark Murphy, the teams president and CEO. He didnt care how it affected him, he just wanted to do what he thought was right., In the beginning, there was Bill Walsh College Football. GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) Aaron Rodgers might not be the only longtime Packer heading out of Green Bay. July 30, 2018 by Matt Lafleur. A Rodgers trade could bring them more picks. 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. The Packers lack of pass-rushing depth was exposed last season after Gary tore the ACL in his right knee. Of course, there were several unsightly seams between Rodgers and others in the organization. Rodgers asked if he could speak with Clements first, and he subsequently began the recruiting process. He has chilled to the point that he is comfortable dealing with failures. We always thought hed be a perfect fit for the scheme. And LaFleur moved past the question almost impossibly quickly. A new seasonand the Wisconsin coldis coming. The Packers also have one pick each in the second, third and fourth rounds, two picks in the fifth and four in the seventh. Where LaFleur calls home, there are championships and there are failures and not much between. The Green Bay Packers have begun the process of moving on from the Aaron Rodgers era. I definitely spent my time on the sticks, he says. Rodgers is a rep guy who likes to practice a concept over and over to see if he feels comfortable. And when the Packers lost to the Chiefs 13-7 in November with Rodgers absent because of COVID-19 protocols, LaFleur took the blame again. All logic points to the Packers signing him to an extension in the coming months that would lock him into Green Bay for years and make him one of the highest-paid coaches in the NFL. That is the most satisfying part of the entire operation: When theres a [play] that hes kind of on the fence about, and then he starts to really, truly like it., I just have such a belief in him, LaFleur continues. 12 pick in 2019. And so the toxins in the relationship between Rodgers and the Packers began to pass. Tight end Marcedes Lewis said if he didnt have LaFleur as his coach, he might not be in the leagueand not necessarily because LaFleur uses his skill set perfectly (though he does, letting Lewis be a dominant blocker and catch passes off those blocks). On the special teams side, LaFleur curiously chose to promote internally from Mennenga's staff and gave Maurice Drayton the job. Its like religion and politics. And the onus will be on coaches to figure out how to help these players find success. Congratulations, LaFleur. The argument LaFleur suffers from is that hes a beneficiary of Rodgerss talent. Glenn Erby. He was cooking dal and kitchari. Even so, he does not feel a ton of pressure. Rodgers remembers first being wowed by the McVay offense, and the stress it put on defenses, in 2018 when the Rams played the Vikings on a Thursday night. Matt LaFleur is one of the youngest coaches to lead an NFL team, and he put together an impressive season in 2020! I just kept saying, I dont know, man, and he said, No were good. Then Id just keep saying, You sure? and hed say, Were good. It went on like this. 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. He also saw that LaFleur was humble enough to ask any question and bold enough to push for answers. Its important to really think about how we talk because our words are spells. 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. This is their job and I expect them to come to work ready to play. Were going to have to add some bodies to that room, coach Matt LaFleur said last month at the NFLs owners meetings. Davante demanded so much of the ball because he was always open and if youve got a guy who is always open, you gotta give him the ball, Rodgers said. 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. Matt will get excited, but hes able to assess situations and not get too carried away. The coach-quarterback relationship ultimately helped LaFleur build trust with his entire team. LaFleur takes his hat and starts to sign the bill before the man asks him to sign the front. 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. LaFleur was intrigued by him because of Rodgers praise. Hes got the green light on the field, LaFleur said. Theres also one more evolution thats taken place. It is a web of inside jokes and roasts that hasnt ended despite their respective rises up the ranks. If Rodgers was ticked off at LaFleur, hed get frustrated and stew. 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. In two of those seasons, Rodgers won the league MVP awardbut LaFleur has never been within 20 votes of Coach of the Year. I wanted him to do what made him happy, because I think too many times we forget these players are people, first and foremost. Youre exactly right., So, its a dance of, how do we show up for each other? I get hired by the Texans, Im 28 years old, our offensive coordinator was my age and I was thinking, This kid cant know that much more than me. And I was blown away. They give credit to worse-looking guys, guys with terrible eyebrows and terrible hairlines, and hes blessed. The more you talk to the core of the LaFleur-Shanahan-McVay tree, the more you realize that youre in the middle of what feels like the worlds most chaotic group chat between football geniuses. You can change your choices at any time by clicking on the 'Privacy dashboard' links on our sites and apps. LaFleur has said he learned to cut his own hair during college. As LaFleur transitions from the 2021 season to the beyond, there are wounds to heal, transitions to navigate and redemption to be won. Be it right, wrong or indifferent, I look at it a little different from some people regarding the whole situation. When LaFleur was a kid, family members called him Matty. Three of his childhood friends still call him that. But weve got a pretty good quarterback that can help other guys. Great hairline, great smile, and he dresses sharp.. The only issue was Rodgers was in the middle of a cleanse.
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