LaFleur Lands Just Outside of Top 5 in NFL Head Coach Rankings

In new NFL head coach rankings, Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur is behind the likes of Andy Reid and Kyle Shanahan.

Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur talks about defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley during a press conference Thursday, February 22, 2024, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. / Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin /

Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur has been in a tough spot for the duration of his tenure.

When he was hired by the Packers in 2019, he was tasked with two jobs.

The first was to get Aaron Rodgers back to his MVP form that had been missing in the final stages of Mike McCarthy’s tenure.

The second was to get the next guy ready to take over when it was time for Rodgers to move on.

LaFleur and Rodgers’ partnership had beautiful symmetry during their first three seasons together.

They were the NFC’s top seed in two of those three seasons and reached the NFC title game twice. Rodgers won two MVP awards and re-established himself as one of the league’s premier quarterbacks.

The Super Bowl continued to evade them, though, as disappointing losses at Lambeau Field saw the Packers fall short of the league’s ultimate prize.

Coaching a great player like Rodgers is a double-edged sword.

The benefits are obvious. The curse, however, is that the superstar player typically gets the credit and everyone around the superstar player typically gets blamed when things go wrong.

LaFleur probably should have at least one NFL Coach of the Year award under his belt at this point. Instead, he has none.

After four years of coaching Rodgers, everything changed last year. LaFleur was tasked with handling a first-year starting quarterback, Jordan Love, and the youngest roster in the NFL.

What happened next might have been LaFleur’s best coaching job. He helped the team and its quarterback dig out of a 3-6 hole to make the playoffs. They fell four points short of an upset win in San Francisco and an opportunity to play a division rival for the NFC Championship.

Despite those accomplishments, LaFleur was No. 6 on Pro Football Focus’ rankings of the best NFL coaches.

“If there was any doubt that LaFleur’s success in Green Bay in his first four seasons with the Packers was simply down to Aaron Rodgers, that narrative was put to bed in 2023,” wrote PFF’s Gordon McGuinness. “With Jordan Love in his first season as a starting quarterback, the Packers were tied with the Detroit Lions for fourth place in the NFL with 0.086 EPA per play and took down the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs before pushing the San Francisco 49ers all the way.” 

Ranked ahead of LaFleur were four Super Bowl champions and Kyle Shanahan.

Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid tops the list, which feels like a slam dunk as he’s won three of the last five Super Bowls.

The San Francisco 49ers’ Shanahan was second. While he has not won a Super Bowl, he has owned LaFleur and the Packers.

LaFleur has beaten the 49ers twice. One was on a Thursday night when the 49ers were decimated by injuries and the COVID-19 list. The other was a 30-28 win at the buzzer in Santa Clara with the heroics of Rodgers and Davante Adams on full display.

However, LaFleur is 0-3 against Shanahan in the playoffs.

In 2019, the teams met in the NFC Championship Game in LaFleur’s first season at the helm. The matchup was one-sided. The Packers fell behind early and only started scoring well after the game had been decided. 

Last year’s 24-21 loss in San Francisco stung because it felt like the Packers had outplayed a superior 49ers team.

The most bitter of all, however, came following the 2021 regular season. The Packers had the NFC’s best record. The 49ers had to scrape to get into the playoffs.

The defense did not allow a touchdown. The game was at Lambeau Field. Everything was going Green Bay’s way until it wasn’t.

A blocked punt against Green Bay’s historically bad special teams led to San Francisco’s only touchdown of the night. Rodgers could not lead a game-winning drive, and Robbie Gould knocked the Packers out of the playoffs in what would be Rodgers’ final postseason game in Green Bay.

While neither Shanahan nor LaFleur have won a Super Bowl, LaFleur is going to need to exorcise that 49ers demon that has plagued the Packers since the early 2010s.

The Baltimore Ravens’ John Harbaugh, the Los Angeles Rams’ Sean McVay and the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Mike Tomlin were the other coaches ahead of LaFleur.

McVay has won a Super Bowl most recently of that group, but has struggled against LaFleur. In fact, McVay has never beaten LaFleur. He’ll have his chance when the Packers head to Los Angeles in early October.

Tomlin has never had a losing season in what will certainly be a Hall of Fame career. Fellow coaches and players that have played for him rave about him. There are fair questions, however, as to if it’s time for change in change-averse Pittsburgh.

The past six years, Tomlin is 47-40-2 and the Steelers have not won a playoff game. The caveat is that he was coaching a quarterback room that included Ben Roethlisberger who was obviously in decline, Mitchell Trubisky, and Kenny Pickett.

None of those players are in Pittsburgh currently, and Tomlin will try again this year with Russell Wilson.

LaFleur will be entering his sixth season in Green Bay. His 56-27 record trails only Reid and Buffalo’s Sean McDermott in winning percentage.

To climb this list even higher, LaFleur likely will need to win a championship.

The good news for him, and the rest of the Packers, is the time to do that is right now.

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