LaFleur Promotes Butkus to Offensive Line Coach
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur is promoting Luke Butkus to offensive line coach, the latest domino to fall in the offseason coaching carousel.
The news was first reported by The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman.
Butkus will replace Adam Stenavich, who was promoted to offensive coordinator to replace Nathaniel Hackett, the new head coach in Denver.
Butkus’ promotion will add an extra layer of spice to the Packers-Bears rivalry. He is the nephew of Pro Football Hall of Famer Dick Butkus.
“I understand I’m going to get hit with this question a lot about my family name and being from Chicago,” Luke Butkus said when he was introduced along with the rest of LaFleur’s first coaching staff. “It’s warranted. It’s been a great rivalry the entire time. I happen to have a family member that was on the other side. Now, I’m on this side. It’s exciting, and if you love the game of football and you’re into football, it’s a pretty cool thing.”
Dick Butkus, who delivered plenty of vicious hits on Packers ball-carriers during his nine-year career, approved of Luke’s decision to join Green Bay. The Chicago tough guy even got some Packers gear.
“He was excited for me,” Luke Butkus said in 2019. “He was excited for the opportunity that I have to be a part of this, being back in the NFL. I think that’s first and foremost. When it comes to that, we make sure we take care of our family. It will be interesting when we play in Chicago and how that will be, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get here. It’s just an exciting time.”
Butkus was Illinois’ starting center from 1999 through 2001, earning third-team All-American honors as a senior. He has worked for the Chicago Bears (2007-09), Seattle Seahawks (2010-11) and Jacksonville Jaguars (2013-15). Mixed in with those NFL jobs, he coached the offensive line at Illinois in 2012 and 2016 through 2018 before joining the Packers as Stenavich’s assistant the past three seasons.
At practice, Stenavich would split his unit into two groups and entrust Butkus to handle half the group.
“He’s a tremendous resource. I lean on him very heavily,” Stenavich said in October. “It’s nice to have a coach that works with you with as much experience as him. He’s been coaching longer than I have and a guy that you can rely on to handle situations. When certain things come up, you can pass things off to him and he’ll handle it. You can have him coach a certain group and I’ll go coach a different group. Just a guy you can trust that does a great job. He’s been a tremendous resource and we’re very lucky to have him.”
The work of Stenavich and Butkus helped the Packers overcome an incredible run of injuries this past season. The season started without All-Pro David Bakhtiari and with two rookies in the starting lineup. At one point, the unit was down four starters with knee injuries. By season’s end, the team started eight combinations up front.
“Throughout the week, Coach Steno, Coach Butkus, they give us so much information and it’s really easy,” left guard Jon Runyan said in December. “It’s just kind of like conversation back and forth. They make it so simple and it’s so easy to understand so that we go out there, we take everything they tell us from the film room onto the field and it’s just really easy to follow. It’s really awesome to have both of those guys. They’re just doing their job at such a high level, it makes it a lot easier for us. There’s no second-guessing when we’re out there on the field.”
Butkus played his college ball at Illinois. His toughness didn’t come from his legendary uncle, though. Rather, it came as the youngest of eight children.
“I think it's every offensive lineman's story,” he told The Chicago Tribune in 2001. “I was always big for my age. I was kind of fat and chubby. My brothers were big. My dad is big (6 feet 4 inches, 280 pounds)," Luke said. "They fed us well in the Butkus household. I don't think there was a piece of furniture or a window my brothers and I didn't break.”
