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. Its not about credentials at that point. And LaFleur moved past the question almost impossibly quickly. If Rodgers was ticked off at LaFleur, hed get frustrated and stew. He mentioned Lazard getting more opportunities, a healthy Randall Cobb being a factor, and big years from tight ends who might step up, along with backs catching more balls. Tight end is an even greater need. Lafleur started a text conversation with Rodgers during his telecast and nearly responded by Facetiming him on live television. 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. To Matt this may have been meaningful, but it doesnt even stick in my brain. I really sit back and think, here we are, with the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League. This is their job and I expect them to come to work ready to play. Dillon give the Packers one of the NFLs top running back tandems. I do think theres something to just momentum, and obviously coming out of those byes I would say maybe we havent kept the momentum going, at least last year. He starts to run through the teams that beat the Packers: A pretty darn good 49er team in the 2019 season, the Super Bowl champion two years ago, Tampa Bay. Rodgers says of his coach: Guys will follow you if you show them how much it means to you. (Michael Owens / Associated Press), Matt LaFleur, with linebacker DeVondre Campbell, has an impeccable winning percentage of .796 but no championships. McDaniel said that with everyone in their 20s or early 30s, with no kids, coaches worked 20-hour days just to get Kyle Shanahans workplace affection. He will do something even if its worse for him. Its not about me, its about everybody else. When the team hosted kids and their families from the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the coach noticed Rodgers did more than provide autographs like he was signing checks to pay bills. Whether its real or not doesnt matter. We didnt even talk about it, to tell you the truth, LaFleur says it being his quarterbacks future. Mike Shanahan told me what was unusual about the group was not just how late they stayed, after arriving before 6 a.m. to work out, but also that they wanted to understand every single position. GREEN BAY Matt LaFleur knew he bombed the interview. It is a web of inside jokes and roasts that hasnt ended despite their respective rises up the ranks. The offensive coordinator of that Texans team certainly knew a hell of a lot about football. 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. Congratulations, LaFleur. And why the Packers are 39-10 under LaFleur. Please enter a valid email and try again. You dont always see the superstars do that, LaFleur says. 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. A good relationshipone where each person erases the others mistakes and both make each other bettercan win you a Super Bowl. LaFleur was hoping for a deeper connection. Good old Matty, he showed up and ate a bowl and a half of everything, Rodgers says. Its important to really think about how we talk because our words are spells. Is this where that bald-headed son of a bitch Bob Barringer lives? the caller demanded to know. Tight end Jace Sternberger (2019 third-round pick) and wide receiver Amari Rodgers (2021) left the organization within two years. He was really good, said Mike LaFleur, Matts brother and the offensive coordinator of the Jets. 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. But the Packers never got the ball back. 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. In their second season together, Rodgers won the third of his four NFL MVPs. In multiple conversations over the two days after the end of the Packers season, LaFleur made sure Rodgers knew how much he was wanted. Thats not just because he has to problem-solve an offense without one of the best receivers in football, but because he is entering Year 4 with one of the best quarterbacks of all time and they have yet to make a Super Bowl appearance. 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. Daily. Without it, nothing. I want to do right by our guys, or at least be open enough to listen to their concerns and then ultimately do whats in the best interest of everybody.. 12 pick in 2019. who played one special teams snap and no offensive snaps as a rookie, was suspended the last six games of the season. I told him, Hey, from my standpoint, you have to do what you think is right for your body.. I Want To Believe: . His ability to throw on the move. Much of that Houston staff departed for Washington in 2010 to work under Mike Shanahan. LaFleur would desperately try to get ahead on his dutieseveryone with him in those days agreed he was a perfectionistand then after hours and hours of work, Gibbs would ask him to change it. And from being in a football family (both his father and grandfather were coaches), he learned not to care what anyone else saidabout him or his team. An NFL coach having three rules and only three rules is not ground-breaking. In the team's virtual meetings, there were far more. But weve got a pretty good quarterback that can help other guys. What Lambeau, Lombardi, McCarthy and Holmgren have that LaFleur does not are championships. Then when passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach Luke Getsy resigned to become offensive coordinator of the Bears, LaFleur told Rodgers he wanted to talk to Clements. LaFleur took over for the Green Bay Packers' former head coach, Mike McCarthy, in . Matt LaFleur wins games at a higher clip than any pro football coach in history. 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. McDaniel explained that in 2009, the Texans let him go after he overslept for a handful of meetings. The wedding story starts where all LaFleur stories do: with the coach trying to give everyone space to be themselves. "It's hard to lead when you're not the guy, and he knows he's the guy now. With all eyes on Jordan Love leading the franchise, head coach Matt LaFleur is backing his new QB1. LaFleur called off the practice. There was a dance, Rodgers explainshe uses that word often in our talkafter LaFleur got hired in 2019, when the two did not know they could just say whatever they wanted to each other directly, sometimes brutally. But those undiscovered moments helped bring LaFleur and Rodgers together and keep them together through the coming turbulence. 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. I have 100 percent trust with him. Winning 13 games three seasons in a row seems like an easy proposition with Aaron Rodgers under center. Lets find what the issue actually is and get to the root of what were talking about. But Rodgers did not love all of the motion in the offense. Theres also one more evolution thats taken place. DeVondre Campbell, a linebacker who broke out for the Packers last season, said that something as simple as LaFleur letting players sleep in their own bed the night before a home gamesomething Campbell has never seen at the NFL levelgives him freedom hes never experienced in the league. From MACtion, I learned you better have a quarterback, he said. He believes it was evident in how the Packers played. He broke Don Shulas record in the Super Bowl era for best winning percentage in his first 40 games. I didnt understand exactly how to talk to him, and he didnt exactly understand how to talk to me, Rodgers says. Theres a play called strike in the Packers playbook. Because I troll Matt all the time.. Packers can shore up pivotal role in Matt LaFleur's offense with tight ends in 2023 NFL Draft. The only issue was Rodgers was in the middle of a cleanse. (Its not.) Rodgers agrees, saying he has seen LaFleur loosen up and worry less about the little things. Aaron is a great player, said Mark Murphy, the teams president and CEO. Of course, there were several unsightly seams between Rodgers and others in the organization. We always thought hed be a perfect fit for the scheme. 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 Packers drafted Auburn kicker Anders Carlson in the sixth round on Saturday. In two of those seasons, Rodgers won the league MVP awardbut LaFleur has never been within 20 votes of Coach of the Year. Copyright IBTimes 2023. 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. He watched Ryan Tannehill throw it as well as anyone in the league. Our football philosophies kind of developed together.. COVID toe is a condition in which toes swell and turn blue or purple. And, of course, how often each would pound the table for a particular concept. Those in the building remain impressed with LaFleurs ability to never let anything affect the locker room, no matter the media firestorm. Its like religion and politics. The Packers must find a quarterback to back up Love. But neither season ended the way they wanted. 1 in the progression in 80 percent of concepts, and its not going to be like that this year. The guy that went to Kyle and said, Hey, I really believe in this dude and we need him back, was Matt. The good news is that the offense is built for just that. Last years third-round pick was UCLA offensive lineman Sean Rhyan, who played one special teams snap and no offensive snaps as a rookie and was suspended the last six games of the season for violating the NFLs policy on performance-enhancers. Find out more about how we use your personal data in our privacy policy and cookie policy. LaFleur has not indicated, at any point, that he wants acknowledgment for what the Packers have achieved with him at the helm. 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. 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. Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur turned down a chance to make the Super Bowl. What are you just going to bang your head against the wall? I am competing with myself every single day, competing with what I was yesterday. Highly possible, Rodgers said with a sly grin, one that youve probably seen hundreds of times on crisp autumn afternoons while hes throwing some overwhelmed NFC defense in a trash can. That was the furthest thing from his mind. But what if youre playing against a defense that says all right and is gonna load up the box? July 30, 2018 by Matt Lafleur. In fact, its the best in NFL history.
