I didnt know, I didnt want to ask [Rodgers], I didnt want to push it and make it go the other way. Rodgers signed a new contract a few days later. Join Packers Head Coach Matt LaFleur and analyst Larry McCarren as they recap the regular season finale vs. the Detroit Lions. And he was still so spooked when he returned to Green Bay that he talked to offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich about it. While the Packers rarely draft receivers in the first round, theyve had great success finding them in the second including Greg Jennings (2006), Jordy Nelson (2008), Randall Cobb (2011), Davante Adams (2014) and Watson (2022). LaFleur was intrigued by him because of Rodgers praise. Well, I dont know how productive it really is. And of course he is. 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.. Despite all that was lost that day, more trust was won. To Matt this may have been meaningful, but it doesnt even stick in my brain. So he was no. The more of it LaFleur gets, the more of it he gives. I definitely spent my time on the sticks, he says. Jordan Love #10 of the Green Bay Packers warms up before the game against the Seattle Seahawks at Lambeau Field on November 14, 2021 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. It was well-received, so LaFleur instituted a new policy that vets never have to stay at the team hotel on the night before home games. Winning 13 games three seasons in a row seems like an easy proposition with Aaron Rodgers under center. Also at the wedding was Packers coach Matt LaFleur, who had the opportunity at the reception to lead Rodgers to the bar, offer him something strong and straight up, and make a pitch for Rodgers to come home with him. I just have so much trust in these guys that they are doing the right thing, LaFleur says. Dillon give the Packers one of the NFLs top running back tandems. Its going to be different guys at different times. Matt LaFleur will coach one more game this season. 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. You can tell Aaron respects Matt because theres some stuff Ive never seen him do, and the offense is different from when Matt started.. All rights reserved. Transfer exodus at Colorado unprecedented in portal era - Yahoo News But the Packers do have to find a way to replace his production. Copyright IBTimes 2023. When team leaders Rodgers, Adams, Kenny Clark, Adrian Amos, Marcedes Lewis, DeVondre Campbell, Preston Smith and others had something to say, LaFleur stopped talking. McVay, LaFleurs former boss in Los Angeles, uses it too. And Rodgers. Davante demanded so much of the ball because he was always open and if youve got a guy who is always open, you gotta give him the ball, Rodgers said. 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. For LaFleur, establishing himself as a first-time head coach in 2019 was one thing. Packers' Matt LaFleur offers another sign that Aaron Rodgers is headed And quite frankly, I thought hed be great for myself as well. I dont need a lot of fluff or convolution. I am competing with myself every single day, competing with what I was yesterday. All Rights Reserved. Hes got great eyebrows, he dresses nice, and they just get distracted by all the things he brings to the table and they dont give him credit. LaFleur acknowledges it took a minute for him and Rodgers to get on the same page. Since 2007, the Vikings have sounded the. LaFleur showed up with a bottle of scotch, the kind stores keep in a case behind the counter. If I see any other quarterback do something, I say, We can do that. I just tell our staff, the only thing that limits us is our own imagination.. "It's hard to lead when you're not the guy, and he knows he's the guy now. In multiple conversations over the two days after the end of the Packers season, LaFleur made sure Rodgers knew how much he was wanted. I think Mike Tomlin has said this, and I thought it was a great way of articulating it, but there was almost a youthful arrogance and blissfulness that allowed us to, regardless of the results, put our heads down and work and be [feel] really fortunate to be in the roles we had, said McVay. Stenavich, the Packers offensive coordinator, said, I think a lot of people kind of get thrown off, because hes very direct. Matt LaFleur's ability to build trust, starting with Aaron Rodgers, is He has some really finely kept eyebrows.. LaFleurs winning percentage of .796 is better than the winning percentages of Curly Lambeau and Vince Lombardi. 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. Most importantly, it takes these guys. (Larry Radloff / Icon Sportswire via Associated Press). When LaFleur worked for Dan Quinn on the Falcons in 2015 and 16, Quinn had three rules. I put it to nearly everyone I spoke with for this story: Why doesnt LaFleur get as many plaudits as he should? Green Bay Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy spoke with Larry McCarren at the NFL Annual Meetings in Phoenix. Follow Dan on Twitter @danpompei, After a bumpy start, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur and quarterback Aaron Rodgers have developed a strong working relationship. And when the Packers lost to the Chiefs 13-7 in November with Rodgers absent because of COVID-19 protocols, LaFleur took the blame again. He was really good, said Mike LaFleur, Matts brother and the offensive coordinator of the Jets. I want to be held accountable, Rodgers says. Whatever is going to help them be their best, thats what we want. Who is Matt LaFleur? Get to know the Packers' young head coach Were still trying to figure everything out. Were talking in the middle of training camp, after all. I thought (Clements would) be great for him. Already, LaFleur has more 13-win seasons in three years than Mike Holmgren had in 17. And theyre gonna make you throw the football? The credentials, or the journey to get the credentials, though, are important. He went on to coach in the minor league UFL for two seasons with the Sacramento Mountain Lions before Shanahan brought him back on staff in Washington in 2011, a year after LaFleur, Shanahan, and McVay were hired there. While playing in Kalamazoo, LaFleur was the backup to Tim Lester, who would eventually become Western Michigan's head coach from 2017 to 2022. While boarding the team plane to Minneapolis, he wore a shirt with LaFleurs likeness that read, OUR COACH IS HOTTER THAN YOURS., He frequently jokes about LaFleurs lush eyebrows. The football acumen he carries with him is pure Shanahan. Those in the building remain impressed with LaFleurs ability to never let anything affect the locker room, no matter the media firestorm. He was supportive from the start.. Who that will be, I dont know yet.. And they take it like being attacked or something but hes just asking questions and being thorough. Stenavich said they recently changed the rules of a protection scheme not because LaFleur was angry, but because he just kept interrogating why they did it that way. Our football philosophies kind of developed together.. He found a way to relate to godlike Aaron Rodgers.. Franklin, who has known LaFleur since they were graduate assistants at Central Michigan in 2005, says he perceived a decrease in LaFleurs anxiety last season. In 2013, he received the Bill Nunn Award from the Pro Football Writers of America for long and distinguished reporting. Im going through that with my own kids right now., As a kid, LaFleurs mom took him to Central Michigan practices, but he said he didnt soak it in as much as he could have. Rodgers was messing around with me quite a bit, LaFleur says. Four years ago, LaFleur was hired to get Aaron Rodgers back to an elite level after a sharp decline in production. The guy that went to Kyle and said, Hey, I really believe in this dude and we need him back, was Matt. You want to earn that trust, and then you want to keep it, Campbell said. But what if youre playing against a defense that says all right and is gonna load up the box? The Packers drafted Auburn kicker Anders Carlson in the sixth round on Saturday. Matt LaFleur: 'We're gonna find out a lot about ourselves moving forward' What I put on film yesterday and what I want to put on film today.. Packers' Matt LaFleur leads with grace through Aaron Rodgers' COVID-19 LaFleur claims he is the only one who touches his eyebrows. LaFleur was a former undersized midwestern quarterback and the son of a MAC coach. LaFleur's first two teams finished 26 th and 29 th in special teams rankings, so he fired coordinator Shawn Mennenga after the 2020 campaign. LaFleur seemed to think the talent was there, and the only change needed was at the top. On the postgame stage, LaFleur steps in front of the targeted and invites fire. What Lambeau, Lombardi, McCarthy and Holmgren have that LaFleur does not are championships. The Packers drafted a third receiver Samori Toure in the seventh round last year. No, youre gonna find a way to solve the problem., No one really knows how Adams will be replaced, and thats not necessarily a bad thing. Those are some of the most special memories my kids will have, LaFleur says of interactions with Rodgers. That quickly changed. His name was Kyle Shanahan, and hed been promoted from quarterbacks coach under Gary Kubiak. Its pretty cool. LaFleur said almost nothing publicly about the controversy during the season, sidestepping questions. As LaFleur transitions from the 2021 season to the beyond, there are wounds to heal, transitions to navigate and redemption to be won. 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.

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