Acme Packing Company
Where does he rank among NFL head coaches?
Matt LaFleur is entering his seventh year as the Packers’ head coach, which is hard to believe but it’s true. The inexorable march of time applies to head coaching tenures as much as anything else.
Personally, I find it a little hard to rate LaFleur among his coaching peers. There has been undeniable success — even if h hasn’t gotten to the big game yet, he’s taken the Packers to the doorstep twice in large part because he helped revitalize Aaron Rodgers in the late stages of his career. He’s had the Packers in the divisional round twice. He’s won a boatload of games.
But LaFleur has also played a role in many of the Packers’ postseason shortcomings. His poor communication with Mike Pettine was a part of the half-ending Hail Mary in the 2020 NFC Championship, and his decision to fiddle with the Packers’ offensive line prior to the 2021 playoff loss was an important part of that defeat. And that’s saying nothing of his decision to go with Maurice Drayton as his special teams coordinator that year, which was an even bigger part of that particular playoff meltdown.
And to the earlier point, LaFleur hasn’t won it all. He’s currently tied with Mike Sherman as the second-longest tenured Packers coach to not win a title. If he fails to do it this year, only Bart Starr, who coached the Packers for nine years without delivering a championship, will have been on the job longer without winning it all.
The problem with rating LaFleur is that things could very obviously be worse. There are lots of NFL coaches who have produced less success than he has, and he’s clearly doing something right. But things could also be better, too — and that’s the biggest problem with the LaFleur era in Green Bay.
Where would you rank LaFleur among NFL head coaches?
According to PFF, the answer to the question posed by Sports Illustrated is “outside the top 10.”
What stories are the Packers telling themselves?
Alt headline: Man who conspicuously seeks attention irritated about the type of attention he’s getting.
What do you charge someone for recovering their priceless, heirloom wedding ring?
