Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur is not perfect, but he brought a resurgence to the team and to Aaron Rodgers that none thought possible after the Mike McCarthy Era went stale. Before going 8-9 last season, the Packers won 13 games in each of LaFleur’s first three seasons, setting a franchise record for most wins in three seasons. While Green Bay has failed to reach the Super Bowl with LaFleur so far, he has led them to two NFC Championship Games in three years.
In other words, LaFleur has a pretty good coaching resume, certainly better than a majority of head coaches in the NFL. However, when Ross Tucker of The 33rd Team made his NFL head coach rankings, he put LaFleur at 17th, in the bottom half, behind Dan Campbell, Mike McDaniel, Kevin O’Connell, and Mike Vrable.
.@RossTuckerNFL‘s full head coaching power rankings 📊
Who should be higher or lower? pic.twitter.com/rMDBxy20LA
— The 33rd Team (@The33rdTeamFB) May 25, 2023
Green Bay Packers Head Coach Matt LaFleur Should Ranked Higher
Again, no one is going to claim that Matt LaFleur is perfect, but he certainly deserves a high ranking than 17th. So far in his career (four seasons), he has 47 regular season wins. Let’s see how that compares to the four coaches immediately ranked ahead of him:
- Dan Campbell: 17 wins in two seasons
- Kevin O’Connell: 0 wins (first-year head coach in 2023)
- Mike McDaniel: 9 wins in one year
- Mike Vrable: 48 wins in five years
How about postseason records? Matt LaFleur is a disappointing 2-3. The others?
- Dan Campbell: Has never made the playoffs
- Kevin O’Connell: Has never even been the head coach of a team in the regular season yet, much less made the playoffs as a head coach
- Mike McDaniel: 0-1
- Mike Vrable: 2-3
Clearly, LaFleur was ranked 17th simply because Ross does not like him for one reason or another. There is nothing in the regular season or postseason records/performances that should indicate LaFleur is a worse coach than either of the four coaches listed above.
Green Bay Packers Fans React to the Matt LaFleur Disrespect
Unsurprisingly, Packers fans had a great deal to say regarding LaFleur’s ranking:
The LaFleur recency bias whiplash made me get a head rush https://t.co/f8Mi8n4Mcf
— Peter Bukowski (@Peter_Bukowski) May 25, 2023
And im not giving the media the “well he had Aaron Rodgers” excuse either. They had this team being terrible going into 2019 and they said that 2019 season was a fluke. Give LaFleur his credit
— KDGYT 🧀🦌 (@Official414) May 25, 2023
Very disrespectful to LaFleur. 2 NFC championship games in 4 years and he’s next to Arthur smith and Riverboat Ron https://t.co/TW4BMpDeWl
— Alec (@AlecPastrami) May 25, 2023
What has Mike McDaniel done to be ranked ahead of Matt LaFleur? https://t.co/NvstiScTgj
— Leveraging Rebuilt Infrastructure (@Ferd_Turgeson) May 25, 2023
the Generic Football Fan will use “but matt lafleur had aaron rodgers!” as an indictment against lafleur while being completely oblivious to the fact that it was lafleur and what he brought schematically that played arguably the biggest role in rodgers’ resurgence.
— zach jacobson (@itszacharyj) May 25, 2023
Unfortunately, LaFleur is not being given the credit he deserves for helping Aaron Rodgers resurrect his career. How quick people are forgetting how “not himself” Rodgers looked in 2017 and 2018 under Mike McCarthy. LaFleur helped turn him around and Rodgers won two-straight MVP awards.
Matt LaFleur is a good coach. I think many will be surprised this year.
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1 Comment
I think Mr. Tucker’s assessment of LaFluer might be more accurate than fellow Packers fan will admit. Dynamics is lacking in Offense and Defense. There seems to be a problem with motivation as well. Proof will be in next seasons stats.