The Green Bay Packers officially announced their new head coach, Matt LaFleur, who last season was the Titans OC. LaFleur has a pretty impressive resume; he was the QB coach at Washington (during RG3's ROTY season) and the Atlanta Falcons. He also spent time as the Rams' OC with Sean McVay. I mean, those are pretty impressive teams to work for as they were never horrible while under Matt LaFleur. But, and I hate saying this, just as Fred Hoiberg was with the Chicago Bulls, is Matt LaFleur a fall guy? Let's take a look.
The Packers went 6-9-1 this year and 7-9 the season before, which isn't very "Packers-esque." Some would say the Packers are heading towards the end of their glory days. I mean, this isn't wrong. The Packers just signed Aaron Rodgers to a lucrative deal that will make it hard to sign good free agents to compliment him in seasons to come; it well even be hard to retain some of the players they already have. Now, I'm not saying the Packers are going to suck by any means, but they won't be the Packers. Evidence of that is this season.
Matt LaFleur, I think, is a fall guy. I believe they hired him as a guy that can get wins, but I also think the Packers are still looking around for the guy they want to take the Packers back to the Super Bowl. He will be used as a guy to help develop talent they acquire in the next couple of drafts; heck, maybe they will even draft a QB in this draft or one of the upcoming drafts to be the replacement for Aaron Rodgers (DeShone Kizer is NOT it). I don't think that would be too bad for Packers fans, to have a coach get wins (not great records), but develop young talent and wait until that bat shit crazy contract is over then make huge moves.
I'm not saying the Packers won't ever be contenders under Matt LaFleur; anytime Aaron Rodgers is on the field the Packers have a huge chance to win. Maybe they hired Matt LaFleur because they think he can somehow work around that huge Rodgers contract? I don't know, but that contract should scare Packers fans because it will bite them in the ass sooner rather than later. I'm not buying that Matt LaFleur is Green Bay's guy; I just don't, especially after all the Josh McDaniels talk. Packers fans should definitely hope that Aaron Rodgers can stay consistently healthy (which isn't his best attribute) and REALLY put the team on his back for the next couple of seasons. If he doesn't, and the Packers are top 10-12 picks in the drafts to come under LaFleur's leadership, Packers fans should be excited because one thing is clear, he can develop talent. That is something to root for.
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