Time Flies as LaFleur-Led Packers Soar Into Playoffs

An offseason of change has Green Bay getting ready for a postseason game against Seattle

Bill Huber | Jan 9, 2020

Time Flies as LaFleur-Led Packers Soar Into Playoffs /

GREEN BAY, Wis. – On Jan. 8, 2019, Matt LaFleur was named the 15th coach in the history of the Green Bay Packers.

On Jan. 8, 2020, he was getting the Packers ready in their quest for a 14th NFL championship.

“That was already a year ago?” LaFleur said on Wednesday. “Man, it’s been a fast year, there’s no doubt about it.”

What’s been especially fast is Green Bay’s race up the NFL standings. After winning a combined 13 games the previous two seasons, LaFleur’s Packers posted a 13-3 mark this season. That was good enough for a first-round bye and a divisional-round home game against Seattle on Sunday night.

After the firing of Mike McCarthy, much of the coaching search centered on finding the right fit with quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers learned of LaFleur’s candidacy while golfing.

“I kind of shanked one up (No.) 6 after the conversation I had with him,” Rodgers recalled. “I enjoyed our conversation. I wasn’t sure how far along the process was, but I was kind of told right after when I was talking with Brian (Gutekunst) that’s who they wanted to go with. It was exciting. Obviously, change is always difficult. I think you have to embrace it and focus on the positives, and there were a lot of positives with Matt right away. It’s been an exciting year. It’s funny, I think, in life in general how much can change in a year. You think about the feeling of the organization and disappointment and everybody really being gone. Now we’re here, there’s eight teams left in the playoffs. I think there’s a different sentiment about the squad and which way our arrow is pointing and the excitement that playoffs bring to the organization and the area and the region.”

There’s more to Green Bay’s rise this season than LaFleur and his mesh with the quarterback, as Rodgers discussed extensively in the video associated with this story.

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Published Jan 9, 2020

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.