Packer Central

18 Days Until Training Camp: LaFleur’s (Vanishing?) Magic Touches

Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur has a lot to prove with the 2023 NFL season fast approaching.

Bill Huber

Matt LaFleur (Photo by Mark Hoffman/USA Today Sports Images)
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – While he’s fallen short in the playoffs, Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur’s first four seasons on the job have been all-time great.

His 47-19 record equates to a .712 winning percentage. That’s fourth-best in NFL history, lagging behind only three Hall of Famers – including legendary Vince Lombardi (96-34-6; .728).

In NFL history, LaFleur had the most wins by a coach in his first three seasons and the second-most wins through four seasons.

His success has been built on two overwhelming strengths, the 18 wins in each fitting perfectly with the Packers’ first practice of training camp being 18 days away.

First, LaFleur has dominated the NFC North with an 18-6 record. According to the Elias Sports Bureau via last year’s season-ending Dope Sheet, LaFleur’s .750 winning percentage is No. 1 all-time among coaches who were at the helm for at least 10 NFC North/NFC Central games. He’s ahead of three icons: Hall of Famer Mike Ditka (58-25; .699), Hall of Famer Bud Grant (80-36-3; .685) and Mike McCarthy (51-23-2; .684).

Only the Kansas City Chiefs (20-3; .870) under Andy Reid have been better in division games over the last four years.

Second, LaFleur’s teams have peaked at the right time. In December and January, the Packers are a resounding 18-2, that .900 winning percentage ranking No. 1 in the league.

Of course, those two strengths went up in smoke when it mattered most.

With LaFleur’s steadfast approach helping the Packers turn the season around after a 4-8 start, a four-game winning streak put them in position to sneak into the playoffs. All they had to do was beat a division team. All they had to do was win a home game.

All they had to do was beat the Detroit Lions, who had been eliminated from the playoffs earlier in the day.

They failed, losing 20-16. As the Packers trudged through the late-night cold back to their locker rooms to begin an unexpectedly long offseason, they suffered the added ignominy of watching the Lions celebrate as if they were going to the Super Bowl.

LaFleur never managed to get Aaron Rodgers out of a season-long funk, part of the reason why Green Bay’s 13-game primetime winning streak was snapped earlier in the season at Buffalo. He never figured out a way to succeed without Davante Adams, part of a reason why Green Bay’s 15-game home winning streak came to a screeching halt earlier in the season against the Jets. The defense and special teams surged down the stretch but, with a trip the playoffs on the line, all of LaFleur’s regular-season successes meant nothing.

With the 2023 NFL season approaching, the spotlight will be on new starting quarterback Jordan Love as he replaces the iconic Rodgers. That’s obvious. The spotlight will be on LaFleur, too.

There’s no doubt he deserves credit for helping turn around Rodgers’ career. However, his high-powered offense fell apart without Adams. What’s going to happen without Rodgers?

The Packers can only hope that LaFleur’s three years of working with Love, and a full offseason to adjust the offense to match the new quarterback’s strengths, will have them kicking off a new era of division and late-season dominance.

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23 days until training camp: Projected depth charts

24 days until training camp: Big question at kicker

24 days until training camp: From No. 1 to No. 24 in red zone

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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