Fill in the Blank: Matt LaFleur is a Top ‘X’ Head Coach in the NFL

The hire of Matt LaFleur as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 2019 was not universally loved nor seen as a slam-dunk hire. As the offensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans, his last stop before heading to Titletown, he did not exactly light the world on the fire as the offense struggled to find consistency in his lone season calling the plays, although injuries played a huge role. Still, while he was the offensive coordinator with the Los Angeles Rams for one season, LaFleur never called plays prior to arriving in Nashville, so the Packers were taking a swing. A huge swing, in fact, considering that Aaron Rodgers was entering the late stages of his career and needed someone that could maximize his abilities and get through to him, something that trailed off under head coach Mike McCarthy. LaFleur ultimately did just that. 

The Packers made back-to-back Conference Championship appearances in 2019 and 2020 and won three consecutive NFC North titles, while Rodgers won the MVP in 2020 and 2021. In his first five seasons at the helm, he has amassed a 56-27 regular season record, a win percentage of .675. His 56 victories are tied for the second-most in NFL history in a coach’s first five seasons, and the team’s win percentage since 2019 is tied for third in the entire league, trailing only the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills. He’s not a perfect coach – his hiring track record has left a lot to be desired, and he has made some head-scratching in-game moves, including kicking a field goal down eight late in the 2020 Conference Championship Game – but he’s a damn good one. Thus, where would you rank LaFleur among the NFL head coaches?

On ESPN’s Mina Kimes Show, Kimes said LaFleur is in consideration for being a top-five head coach. “He’s right there for me. Green Bay was the fourth-youngest playoff team … ever in the modern NFL,” Kimes said on the podcast’s latest episode last week. “Everybody said, ‘Show us that you can do it without Aaron Rodgers.’ Well, he showed us he could do it without Aaron Rodgers.” 

Kevin Clark of Omaha Productions/ESPN was a guest on the episode and also sang LaFleur’s praises. “The ability to get Jordan Love this good this early is incredible, all while maximizing Rodgers to two MVPs,” Clark said. “I wrote this a couple of years ago and everybody got at me, and I said, ‘If it was so easy to win this many games with Aaron Rodgers, why didn’t Mike McCarthy do it?’” 

While LaFleur has produced quite a resume in Titletown, the most impressive element of it was the job he did last season. There were a lot of unknowns. The youngest team in the NFL. A first-year starting quarterback replacing a future Hall of Fame quarterback. And as the season started off, it was difficult to see the light at the end of tunnel for the 2023 Packers, considering they lost franchise left tackle David Bakhtiari to a season-ending knee injury in Week 1 (replaced by a former seventh-round pick) and started the season 3-6. Things turned around in a hurry. Jordan Love played like one of the best quarterbacks in the league, the young offensive skill players impressed, and Green Bay dismantled the Dallas Cowboys on the road on Wild Card weekend, with an offensive performance that had LaFleur’s handprints all over it. And despite losing the following week to the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round, they were a play here and a play there away from making the Conference Championship Game for the third time under LaFleur. 

So, getting back to the original question, I believe LaFleur is squarely in the top ten, but he is not a top-five head coach in the NFL. That is not a knock on him whatsoever. He frankly should have been the Coach of the Year in 2023 for the work he did with that young team. Simply put, though, there are other coaches more deserving, ones who have had sustained success and/or won a Super Bowl. Below is my top ten. 

1. Andy Reid, Kansas City Chiefs
2. Sean McVay, Los Angeles Rams
3. Kyle Shanahan, San Francisco 49ers
4. John Harbaugh, Baltimore Ravens
5. Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh Steelers
6. LaFleur
7. Sean McDermott, Buffalo Bills
8. Dan Campbell, Detroit Lions
9. Jim Harbaugh, Los Angeles Chargers (previously San Francisco 49ers)
10. DeMeco Ryans