LaFleur Fires WRs Coach Whitted

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur fired his first assistant.

LaFleur dismissed receivers coach Alvis Whitted after his undermanned unit failed to play above its humble draft roots this season.

“We want to thank Alvis for all that he contributed to our success this season,” LaFleur said in a press release. “He’s a great man and we wish nothing but the best for him, his wife Tracy and the rest of their family moving forward.”

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In a way, Whitted’s hands were tied by his talent. Davante Adams had another tremendous season, ranking in the top five in the NFL in receptions per game and yards per game. In terms of draft pedigree, Adams, a second-round pick in 2014, was the exception on the receiver corps that Whitted inherited and the Packers rolled with all season. The only other receiver drafted by the team was Marquez Valdes-Scantling, the final pick of the fifth round in the 2018 draft.

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Geronimo Allison, Allen Lazard and Jake Kumerow were undrafted free agents. So was Darrius Shepherd, who spent the first half of the season on the roster.

Valdes-Scantling was the anointed No. 2 receiver but his play deteriorated to such an extent that he played only one snap in the NFC Championship Game. In the final nine regular-season games, he caught five passes for 36 yards. Allison, who was on pace for 1,164 yards after the first four games of last season until a core-muscle injury ended his year, was the most accomplished of the receivers beyond Adams entering 2019. However, he suffered through a dismal season. Among NFL receivers targeted at least 50 times, he was next-to-last in yards per target and yards per catch.

The Packers fortified the group with former fifth-round pick Ryan Grant but Grant never saw the field in his 10 regular-season and two postseason games on the roster. J’Mon Moore, a fourth-round pick in 2018, failed to take a step forward and failed to make the roster.

Added together: Adams caught 83 passes in 12 games; none of the other receivers caught more than 35.

Green Bay’s receiver corps forced a total of nine missed tackles; 18 individuals forced more. As a team, Green Bay finished in the middle of the pack with 17 drops, according to STATS. Among the receivers, Adams and Allison had three, Lazard had two, and Kumerow and Valdes-Scantling had one each.

While the production wasn’t there, Whitted convinced his receivers – generally speaking, a position group filled with players more about glitz than guts – to block consistently well.

Whitted spent the previous seven years as the receivers coach at Colorado State before joining LaFleur's first staff. As a player, he caught 74 passes in nine seasons.

LaFleur will have to find a replacement. He’s already replaced defensive backs coach Jerry Gray and retained defensive coordinator Mike Pettine.