After Coach of Year Snub, Where Does LaFleur Rank for 2020?
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Matt LaFleur had a banner first season as coach of the Green Bay Packers. He took a team that finished 6-9-1 in 2018 and led it to a 13-3 record, an NFC North title and a trip to the NFC Championship Game. He became the only first-year coach in Packers history to win a division crown, and the team’s seven-win improvement was the biggest leap in any season in franchise history.
For all of that, LaFleur earned three measly votes for NFL Coach of the Year. He lagged well behind the winner, Baltimore’s John Harbaugh (27 votes), and the runner-up, San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan (14).
LaFleur didn’t get enough love from the Associated Press’ postseason awards panel and he’s not getting much love from the oddsmakers, either. SportsBetting.ag posted its 2020 coach-of-the-year odds. LaFleur is a 30/1 shot to win the award. Only nine coaches have longer odds.
“I think you’re constantly learning every day in this job,” LaFleur said on May 15. “There’s been a lot of reflection in how we can handle things better, to the best of our ability. Those conversations, we constantly have after-action reports where we get together as a staff and talk about what we liked about certain things and what we learned from whatever phase we’re in or whatever it is we’re doing, and the adjustments that we want to make moving forward.”
Here are the frontrunners:
Bill Belichick 12/1
Bruce Arians 12/1
Mike McCarthy 14/1
Frank Reich 16/1
Andy Reid 18/1
Kevin Stefanski 18/1
Kliff Kingsbury 18/1
Sean McDermott 18/1
