Given a Vote of Confidence, Matt LaFleur Must Prove Himself Again

Matt LaFleur is back in a familiar position. Yes, he is still the head coach of the Green Bay Packers.

There were some questions that hung over his future as LaFleur left the podium following the team’s demoralizing playoff loss against the Chicago Bears in which they blew a 21-3 lead.

Ultimately, LaFleur received an extension in the offseason that represented a significant commitment from the powers that be at Lambeau Field. The thinking is that LaFleur is the man to lead the Packers to the franchise’s 14th world championship.

What are the thoughts outside the building? Well, those opinions may vary.

When LaFleur took the podium after Green Bay’s loss to Chicago, the mood in the room felt funereal. Yes, the season was over, but it felt like it was the end of an era in Green Bay. LaFleur spoke like a man who feared his fate was sealed in the wrong direction.

The thought here was that it was time for a change in Green Bay after LaFleur completed his seventh season as the team’s head coach without leading them to a championship.

LaFleur now is in the odd position of being the fourth-longest tenured head coach in the NFL, but once again having to prove his mettle as if he’s a first time head coach.

Then again, that’s nothing new for LaFleur now, is it?

2019: New Man In Charge

When LaFleur first took the job in Green Bay in 2019, reviews on the hire were mixed. Some thought that LaFleur was underqualified as he was the steward of the Tennessee Titans’ 25th ranked offense in the NFL.

Others wondered if LaFleur could be the one to teach Aaron Rodgers new tricks as he entered into the twilight of his career.

There were questions about whether LaFleur would give Rodgers control at the line of scrimmage, and how that might affect the relationship between the coach and his future hall of fame quarterback.

Ultimately, all of those questions were for naught. For LaFleur’s first three seasons, all the Packers did was pile up wins. They won 13 games in each of LaFleur’s first three seasons, and secured the top seed in the NFC playoffs in two of them.

Rodgers was reborn winning back-to-back MVP awards in 2020 and 2021.

They would play for two NFC titles in LaFleur’s first three years before ultimately falling short to San Francisco and Tampa Bay.

While LaFleur had fallen short of a Super Bowl in his first three seasons as the head coach, there was little doubt left that he’d answered the question as to whether he was the right coach during his hiring cycle.

The rest of the coaches hired that offseason included Kliff Kingsbury, Freddie Kitchens, Vic Fangio, Zac Brian Flores, Adam Gase, and Bruce Arians.

Arians was the only coach that sustained any success, winning a Super Bowl with Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers while victimizing LaFleur along the way. The rest of the coaches hired during LaFleur’s cycle were wildly unsuccessful. Zac Taylor is the only one who is still employed by the Cincinnati Bengals.

The rest of the coaches have not received another opportunity as a head coach after being fired by their respective clubs.

Of course, LaFleur was not done answering questions, because there was one big elephant in the room after the 2022 season, LaFleur’s fourth as the head coach.

2023: The Transition

After falling short in the playoffs following the 2021 season, the Packers missed the playoffs in 2022 before making a franchise changing move. Aaron Rodgers was shown the door, and Jordan Love, the team’s controversial first round pick in April of 2020 was handed the keys to the franchise.

When the transition at quarterback was made, questions surrounded the rest of the franchise. How much were they being propped up by a future hall of fame quarterback? Were they just going to fall back into the abyss after Rodgers left for greener pastures?

The legacies of Brian Gutekunst and Matt LaFleur were going to be tied to Jordan Love and his progress.

That is undeniably true of LaFleur, who was tasked with developing the young quarterback out of Utah State who had bouts of inconsistency.

Questions grew deeper as the Packers and Love struggled in the first nine games of the season. The Packers were 3-6, and some wondered if Love could be one-and-done as the Packers’ head coach.

This is when LaFleur did his best coaching job during his time in Green Bay.

While they said all the right things publicly, there likely were players in the locker room who believed that Rodgers would have given them a better chance to win at the time of the transition.

Those thoughts likely got louder as Love struggled early in the season. From there, Love and the Packers finished the season on a 6-2 run in the regular season and won Love’s playoff debut in Dallas.

Any question about whether LaFleur could be successful without Rodgers were quieted for the moment.

2026: New Year, New Set of Questions

With the Packers set to enter the 2026 season, their head coach is now entering his eighth year as the team’s head coach, but essentially has a clean slate to some degree.

Any goodwill that LaFleur has built up over the years is gone. Yes, the Packers have been successful by normal standards in the three years since Jordan Love took over as the starting quarterback, but Green Bay is not a normal place.

The city is named Titletown. Success is measured in whether or not the team won a championship. LaFleur has not done that since arriving in Green Bay. The LaFleur/Love partnership has not sniffed a conference championship game since the two were joined at the hip in the spring of 2023.

Their last moment together was a meltdown in a playoff game against their biggest rival they have traditionally owned for the better part of 30 years.

A playoff meltdown of that proportion does not lay the blame solely at the feet of the head coach, but that is the nature of the position that LaFleur is in. The buck stops with him.

The Packers could have chosen to move on after the loss against Chicago, and likely would have been applauded for doing so.

Instead, they chose continuity. As a result LaFleur will have to prove himself again, or continuity will become catastrophe. As a result, LaFleur will have to prove himself again, or choosing continuity will become a catastrophe.

In Part 3 of our Packers position previews, it's Tucker Kraft and the tight ends. Here is the depth chart, the key question, the big battle and the doomsday scenario. ⬇️https://t.co/XNGTl5vTO3
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) July 22, 2026

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