#390 Packers Unscripted: He's here

welcome back to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I and Mike Spofford, he is my trusted colleague West Hodkowitz, were coming to you here from our studios at lambeau Field, and we are back because the Packers have a new head coach, the fifteenth head coach and franchise history, Matt Lafleur is introduced by Mark Murphy and Brian Goudacunst on Wednesday afternoon in the lambeau Field Media Auditorium West and a lot of stuff we can kick around here and

a lot to talk about. But but boy, it was an exciting day Wednesday at lambeau Field after what's been a couple of long years and some frustrating seasons here for the Packers. And uh, just seeing how jam packed that media auditorium was with all those cameras. A scene like that had not really taken place in Green Bay in quite a while. No, I mean it, U, It

definitely was different. There was a palpable energy throughout the building, whether it was the media auditorium, packers locker room when we were in there, just the vibes in there as well, not that there's any players there, but just amongst the personnel and the people in the building, it just there is a tangible energy that I think you can feel radiating from this higher Matt Lafleur, thirty nine years old, UH has a really interesting story when you look at

where he's come from and the route he took and some of the lucky breaks that go your way sometimes on that road to becoming an NFL head coach an expansive resume, I think the kind of guy that you look at when you're trying to build a franchise for two thousand, nineteen and beyond really has the background you're looking for with some of the different offenses that he was exposed to and some of the players that he's

worked with. So now he's the fifteenth head coach and franchise history and looking to turn this thing around in Title Town. Yeah, I think what you just said, the players that he worked with, I think that's the thing that stands out to me the most, because let's be honest here, the most important thing for Matt Lafleur as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers is to get Aaron Rodgers back to playing at the level that we've seen Aaron Rodgers play at in the past. That

is job number one. However he's going to go about that. And when you look at Matt Lafleur's history as a quarterbacks coach in Washington, he found a lot of success with the guy who became the NFL offensive Rookie of the Year and Robert Griffin the third. Then as quarterbacks coach in Atlanta, he was the position coach for Matt Ryan when he wins his first m v P in two thousand sixteen when the Falcons end up going to

the Super Bowl. Then last year, he becomes the offensive coordinator and a play caller for the first time with the Tennessee Titans, and he deals with a number of for an injuries, going back and forth between Marcus Mariota and Blaming Gabbert, and transforms their offense into a power running team with Derrick Henry and gets them to the precipice of a playoff birth of a week seventeen win to get in game, which unfortunately the Titans don't win.

But my point is he's found success with a lot of different types of players, particularly quarterbacks and a lot of different styles of offense in a lot of ways. And I think that bodes well for what the history,

what what what the future holds here for this historic franchise. Yeah, and it's funny too because you you you listed off all those different quarterbacks everybody's worked with into me, maybe the most impressive out of that group is what he and Sean McVeigh did with Jared Goff in Los Angeles. You really forget. I mean he did, he worked wonders with Matt Ryan, helped him, you know, win an m v P Award, took his game to another level and there run to the Super Bowl in two thousand sixteen.

But Jared Goff, you think about what the na it was around that young man coming off his rookie season in two thousands. There were discussions of the bust label with him for as high a draft pick as he was, and things were not coming together for the Rams, and uh that, as you said, the narrative quickly turned. And it's in the fact that Carson Wentz was looking like the next you know, the second coming of you know, Johnny Unitis. I mean it was just incredible, Uh, everything

where things were at im for my money. Mike, You've been around this game a lot longer than I have, and I don't want to be a prisoner at the moment. But the turnaround, the Rams had just their culture, their offensive production. What they did from two thousand sixteen to seventeen, I don't know if we've ever seen anything like it in the modern era. And then dramatic, he decides, instead of just staying in the passenger seat of a very comfortable car, I'm gonna go challenge myself. I'm gonna go

to Tennessee and be my own play caller. Dealt with a lot of adversity there, Marcus Mariot are dealing with some very significant injuries that he was trying to play through. But yet they still found a way. And you take all those experiences, what happened in Washington, his one year in Notre Dame, what he got reunited with Brian Kelly, You had the time with Matt Ryan in Atlanta, l A. Tennessee.

Now he's with the Green Bay Packers. I think it is the perfect culmination of all that experience, putting that to work. Now. Yes, on the resume it says thirty nine, but if you look at what he's done over the last fifteen years and the ladders he's climbed. I mean, this is a guy with a wealth of information that

he's bringing to this offense. Yeah, it's interesting the phrase that you used with sitting in the comfortable passenger seat of a car, because if he had stayed with the Rams as offensive coordinator, Sean McVeigh as the head coach is calling the plays on offense there. But with the Rams going thirteen and three, being the number two seed in the NFC this year and all of that, there's a really good chance that Matt Lafleur would have been interviewing for a lot more head coaching jobs than than

the Green Bay Packers. It turns out his risky move to go to Tennessee to become a play caller for the first time, to grow as a coach and try to advance his own career in that way, in some respects it dimmed his prospects because Tennessee's offense didn't light it up and everything, and and it might have it might have shied some teams away. The Packers looked at

it in a different way. They went behind the statistics, They looked at the injuries that were dealt with, all the circumstances that went into that, and uh, the chance that he took in terms of going out of his own comfort zone and not just saying, Okay, I'm gonna ride the coattails of Sean McVeigh and Jared Goff as long as I can until I get my shot. He said, I'm gonna go call plays somewhere so that when I do get my shot, I'm going to be better for it.

I'm going to be more prepared for it. That's how Mark Murphy and Brian Brian Goudakums looked at this, and and I give them credit for it. Now, who knows if this is going to work out or not. Obviously there's a ton of energy in the building. Everybody's really excited. I'm excited for Matt Lafleur. When you see a thirty nine year old guy up there achieve his dream. He is a head coach in the NFL, and he's a head coach, which for one of the most historic franchises

in the NFL. It's a it's a great thing to watch as as a as a spectator. But um, but this process and and and the way the Packers went about it. They talked to a lot of people, and uh, there was no doubt in Mark Murphy and Brian Gudakunsen russ Ball's mind that Matt Lafleur was the guy for the job. Ten interviews that they conducted seven over a span of three days last weekend, the last of which

was Matt Lafleur. They mentioned that they went at like four or five different cities or something like that over a span of three days. Yeah, but the thing that was the most compelling about it isn't and rightfully so, sometimes if you're interviewing all those people, the last one is gonna look the most attractive. So they had to step back. They had to make sure they took the emotions out of it. And when they reassessed a couple of days later, yeah, this is the guy that made

sense for the Green Bay Packers. The other thing to kind of bounce off of what you're talking about a couple of minutes ago, he could have stayed in l A. They could have had another a lot of success again this year, thirteen wins. Uh, certainly look like they're gonna be one of the front runners here to make a run at a Super Bowl, but he probably wouldn't have been as well conditioned to be a head coach if he stayed there. This way, he did get out there,

he did get that experience. And Mike, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong here, But you go back and look at the Packers history of when they've had success, specifically on the offensive side of the ball, it's been when they've had a head coach that's being the play caller coaches coach Mike McCarthy, play caller Mike Sherman during the best run that he had in Green Bay was when he took over play calling again from Tom Rosalie. You look at you know, Mike Homer and these guys.

This is how they get to this level. If this is the way you coach, if this is the way you play, if this is the way you work when you get to that top job, why would you change what you are? Tiger doesn't change its stripes, right, So from that regard, I think for him to get out there, put himself out there, be a play caller, gained that experience.

When you're sitting down in that interview, then as he said, you can have that manual, you can have everything laid out what it's gonna take to be a head coach in this league. The GM, the CEO president you're talking to, they're gonna throw that in the middle of the table and they want to hear what you have to say. They want to hear about your experiences. I'll tell you what, Mike, do you listen to Matt Lafleour go through how he got to this position, the continuous upward climb that he's

been on. It's impressive because whether it was his intention five ten years ago or not, he checked all the boxes to afford himself this opportunity. Yeah. And when you look at the Packers history, as you mentioned this last quarter century plus of the success, the revitalization that began with Ron Wilf and Mike Holmgren and whatnot, Mike Holmgren didn't have any previous NFL head coaching experience when he

was hired. Mike Sherman didn't, Mike McCarthy didn't. The only one who did was Ray Rhodes, who only lasted one year and was gone after an eight and eight season. And in this quarter century plus, the Packers have had numerous playoff appearances. I believe it's seven trips to the NFC Champion Chip Game, three trips to the Super Bowl. So this this fits with how the Packers do things.

It's about it's about seizing the moment and seizing the opportunity with somebody that they believe is ready for that next step. And yes, is there a risk, is it taking a chance on somebody who maybe hasn't proven himself. Yes, But at the same time, if you let somebody else take that chance, they're going to reap the reward in success if they're the ones who were right. And if you were sitting on the sideline because you because you weren't,

you know, willing to stick your neck out there. Absolutely, I know you're a big gambler. I know it. I see it in your eyes. But if you're sitting in a blackjack table, the dealer isn't showing his hand. I mean, it's it's it's how these things go. Probably a poker analogy have been more suitable there. But be that as it may, you don't know what you're getting. The whole life is full of box of chocolates. Approach to this thing, you have to go off your gut instinct. And Mark

Murphy said from the very beginning of this. He's been through these things before. He did it at Colgate, did it at Northwestern, He's done it with the Green Bay Packers. You have to trust your process, you have to trust the people, you have to trust the voices. I thought one thing that was really enlightening. Murphy laid it all out there in terms of what their process was, sitting down with the Packers leadership council, with the players in that locker room, what do you want out of the

head coach? A process that him and Brian Goodkins both did. They pulled in a lot of different people, and in the end they felt that they found a guy they felt would be the right fit for this organization. Even put him on the phone with Aaron Rodgers to discuss this offense and where he wants to take things. And we'll talk about this going forward to Mike. But the fact that you know he did work with Matt Ryan.

He had to prove something to Matt Ryan. Matt Ryan had been in the league for seven years already at that point, and it's and had been been to multiple playoff games that appeared in NFC Championship games and all that before the Dan Quinn and Kyle Shanahan and Matt Lafleur era began there on the offensive side. The same thing that Mike McCarthy had to do when he had to prove himself to Brett Fare, when he had to

prove himself to Joe Montana. Same thing when you look at all these different coaches in the league that have worked with veteran quarter acts or veterans at any position. You need to show that you can coach. He's done that, He's proven it, and now he's going to be working with another m v P quarterback in Aaron Rodgers, who

I had to be honest with you, Mike. As much success as the Packers have had over the last thirteen years, there is a lot to be said for Aaron Rodgers now at thirty five years old, getting a chance to operate in a new system. It's a you know, things like this don't happen a lot, so getting a chance to see what he can do now, taking his skill set, what he's done to this point in his career, getting a chance to marry it now with Matt Lafleur's scheme

and system. I think it's an exciting thing and it's one of the reasons why to get off to the beginning of her show. There is that real tangible energy that you feel in the building. Right Yeah, I want to get back to that point you just made about Rogers in a second but but first year West. The powerful noise canceling technology that helps NFL coaches block out eighty thou screaming fans can get you closer to the music you love. Learn more at www dot bos dot com.

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Official sup partner of the Green Bay Packers. Okay, we know this all revolves or very much revolves around Aaron Rodgers in terms of the immediate future here of the Green Bay Packers, And what I think is interesting because this was my gut feeling going into this coaching search from the minute the Packers decided to part ways with Mike McCarthy. In my mind, I was feeling like, if you look at this as we're on the back third of Aaron Rodgers career, just say, I don't know, I

don't know. I don't know if saying back half that might be asking him to play a little bit too long. But if we say that, if he's on the back third of his career, what's it going to take to maximize this final stretch of Aaron Rodgers career? And in my mind it was like, you know, do you have to give him something completely new and challenge him? You know, this is one of the most competitive guys I've ever been around. He's competitive at everything, ping pong, Jeopardy, and football,

you name it. So if you're gonna if you're gonna hand him something called the playbook or whatever, if you're going to hand him something and challenge him and say, Okay, you're one of the best that's ever played this game, apply your Hall of Fame talents to this, let's go. I think I think that's the best way to really maximize on whatever it is that Aaron Rodgers has left here before he retires and heads off to Canton, Ohio at some point. So I like this approach from the Packers. Yes,

there's no guarantee it's gonna work. There's no guarantee that anything that the Packers were going to do here was was going to work. That's why you have to go through the process, as you said, and trust it. But I think Aaron Rodgers is potentially going to be re energized and revitalized by the challenges that are now going to be placed in front. If you know anything about covering Rodgers, being around Rodgers, these are the type of things that he really embraces. And the fact that you

cannot discount this either, Mike. The Packers finished six nine and one last year. Aaron Rodgers is not feeling great about that. He wants to win. There's probably nobody in this league maybe has ever walked through this particular building that's wanted to win more than Aaron Rodgers has. So um, yeah, you know again, I don't want to put words into his own mouth. We'll hear what he has to say in April during the offseason program or everything else comes

out before then. But just knowing one that the packers did the best they could to include as many different voices as they could in terms of trying to understand what this team needs, what do they want, What do we need to do to put themselves back in a situation of dominance? You want to get back to that

different plateau. That is not easy to attain, but it's something that I think if you have that open communication, if you have that dialogue, it's going to be there for you and I one of the things that I was really in us with And I don't know what outside media and and pundance are going to do with this, but I really did enjoy what Matt Lafleur said about you know, there's a big playbook. There's a lot of

plays in that playbook. If there's something you don't like in that playbook, you don't feel comfortable running, tell me will use something else. And I think to some extent, you know, people can be like, well then that's so and so trying to dictate things. No, Mike, you and I discuss things on a daily basis, right, We write stories, we do things. Hey, how do you feel about this? What do you want to do here? Do you want

to do something like this. Yeah, because if you're just sitting there saying, hey, Wes, I want you to like go around the office and and start you know, or going around Green Bay and start collecting setting new sales ads and things like that. No, I don't want to do that. I wasn't paid to do that. I'm paid

to write. I'm paid to do this show. I think it's really important to know what the whole barometer is, what the landscape is, what do you feel comfortable with, particularly when you're coming in with a new scheme with a quarterback that you have coached before. That's what the next three months are going to be about this coaching staff, once it's developed, trying to set the place, trying to set the plan, and then once April first comes around,

implementing that and getting that vision down. And just based on their short interactions so far, again only a testimony at this point in time to the floor, it sounds like everybody's on the same page from that regard. Yeah, it certainly looks that way, and we'll see how things come together. Now. Matt Lafleur's number one job in the

immediate future is to build his coaching staff. He didn't really get into any specifics in his introductory news conference on Wednesday as far as that goes, there are some reports out there about some coaches that he may retain. Um, he didn't get into that. He said he is planning to sit down with some of the members of the Packers coaching staff from including defensive coordinator Mike Petton. So we'll see how that evolves. And those are things that we can discuss on on future shows as we get

the news of those decisions. But I think this is something where he's, uh, he's going to act quickly and swiftly and get this staff built because it's because now it's about building that offensive playbook potentially you know, seeing seeing what's there defensively, um, a special team's playbook, all of that, because he's in charge of the whole show now, it's not just it's not just the one side of

the ball. And he's also gonna want to have some conversations potentially with Brian Goudakunst about Okay, here's what I see on the current roster. These are the kinds of things I'd like to do so in free agency, in the draft, or there's are there some types of players maybe we can target to to fill in some gaps and fill in some holes as you uh as the Packers transition to a new system, certainly offensively at least.

So there's there's a lot of there's a lot of work to be done and and quite frankly, he doesn't have a whole lot of time to do it. No. I mean you think back to the first couple of years of Ted Thompson, Mike McCarthy. Uh. Ted Thompson brought in Charles Woodson. Mike McCarthy had to coach Charles Woodson. You have to be able to have that dialogue in terms of what are the players we feel and need to be here and how are we going to go about using them and being able to maximize their talents.

That's the next step. Honestly, I think this the next couple of weeks here, however, the shuffles out with the coaching staff trying to finalize that. I've always felt this way, it's one of the most important times of the season because you're gonna have time to set down, sit down and figure out what you want to do for a playbook. You're it's not as much time as you used to as far as working with players, but you're gonna have that time to, you know, explain to them what the

vision is. But this is the time of the year where everything is moving so fast, there's so much going on, and it really does put that rolodex to to work and making sure that you know, when you're trying to set a roster of two individuals working towards a common goal and finding a real common bond between them among them, this is uh a pivotal time now for Matt Lafleur

as he looks to begin putting his step on this organization. Yeah. Well, a couple more minutes before we go here on today's show, US wanted to just get your thoughts on NFC divisional playoffs. Are i should say NFL divisional playoffs coming up this weekend? Four games. You've got Colts, Chiefs, Chargers, Patriots in the a f C, Cowboys, Rams, Eagles, Saints in the NFC. Is there any one of these four games that you're looking forward to the most. There's a couple, really, three

are the ones that I'm most excited about. I'll just say this is my favorite weekend of NFL football of the year. Divisional playoffs you've got, you know, the Saturday afternoon, Saturday night and then two games on Sunday afternoon, the final eight. As you advanced to the to the final four. That I think it's the best weekend of football there is really excited to see how the Rams do. We're talking so much about the Floor and his former connections

with Sean McVeigh. They have a tough, tough, you know battle coming up here against the Dallas defense that looks really formidable at this point in time, especially now without the Bears in this thing. Saints and Eagles is interesting just because of the you know, the the Cinderella story again here with Philadelphia. But for me my money, if you said West pick one game, it's that Charges In the Patriots, it's Drew Brees Philip Rivers, a tale as

old as time. And as I wrote in Insider in Box, I think there is a small part of me that is rooting for a Philip Rivers Drew Brees Super Bowl. I think if you're building up a card uh w W, e UFC, whatever it is, I just think that that is the biggest most attention you can bring those two weeks building towards that all this time passed after those two had been together. That would be a wonderful scenario.

But as far as this weekend's concerned, can Philip Rivers exercise a few demons here against the New England Patriots and advanced back to an AFC championship game. Yeah, there's some interesting things here. I think there there's an interesting narrative storyline to all four of these games because with Colts Chiefs, I know it was a handful of years ago, but that one playoff game with the huge comeback, what

wasn't it? Wasn't it the Colts that were down like twenty eight points or twenty seven points or something like that to the Chiefs in the postseason and they came back and won. That was a while ago, I know. But was that during Andrew luck second year? When was that? Yeah? It might have It might have been Luck second season. You can keep talking, Yeah, yep, it was yeah, Yeah, tremendous,

tremendous playoff game. Then you look at Chargers and Patriots with what they're talking about for the weather in Foxborough on Sunday, it could the cold and the snow, and who knows, maybe another Tuck rule game is on the horizon. Charles Woodson will have to uh be sitting in a in a sky box there at Gillette Stadium just in case. Um. Then in the NFC, the Cowboys defense you mentioned it

going up against the Rams. This is the Cowboys defense that really is the only one that we've seen, at least through the second half of the regular season in the NFL that was able to tame the New Orleans Saints. And so this matchup with Dallas' defense going up against the Rams out in l A. It's it's curious to

me from that standpoint. Can the Cowboys keep it up on the defensive side and give their power running game with Ezekiel Elliott and then you know those occasional over the plays to a Marii Cooper with that that addition to their passing offense from late in the year. And then Eagles against the Saints. I don't remember exactly what the final score was in the regular season, but the Saints, the Saints, Claubert, these guys, and I'll just say this, if you're the Eagles, you don't you don't get a

chance seven. You don't get a chance in the NFL normally to come back in the playoffs and get a rematch against a team that quite frankly rubbed your noses

in it. So as as bullish as I've been on the Saints all season long, and the fact that they have the number one seed and it's going to be really tough for somebody to go into the Superdome and beat them, the fact that the Eagles kind of got their tails kicked, I should say this flat out did get their tails kicked by this team earlier in the season is what makes this one kind of intriguing to me,

because these kind of rematches don't happen very often. And here's the biggest thing, Michael, the Eagles have absolutely zilch to lose in this game. They're playing with house money again again, could not have gone any worse the first time that they played the Saints, So yeah, what what do you have to lose in a matchup like this? Go out? They got, They got the biggest break. They got the biggest break any team could ask for in

the postseason. A tip, a tip and a donk and a clock I mean on that field goal that that won the game in Chicago for them and sent the Bears to an early exit in the postseason. That's a some sometimes that's all a team needs. But that being said, I still think I still think the Saints in New Orleans are going to be the toughest out in in

the postseason. Absolutely, and that's also I think one of the reasons why we'll see exactly how the Rams do if they you know, they've been up and down a little bit during the second half of the season, but if it would work out to where you could get Dallas going into the Superdome against the Saints. You know, one of the things that's really interesting. I have a lot of respect for Rod Marinelli the defense that he built there in Dallas, but what was one of the

biggest things that they struggled for years? It was trying to find inside linebackers for that defense, middle linebackers for that defense, especially with Sean Lee doing you know, working through some of the injuries. And now you have a story like Jalen Smith, the way he's played after such a devastating injury coming out of college Layton vander esh is one of the you know, an all Pro type

player right out of the gate. They're complete team in the middle of the field, and where do teams like the Rams in Saints try to hurt you the middle of the field. Would be an interesting scenario to watch, especially if they get back to back matchups with those two teams. Yeah, and however it comes out in the NFC, I just realized this. No matter what the matchup is in the NFC Championship, it will be a rematch from

the regular season. Whether it's because the Cowboys have played the Saints and the Eagles obviously, and the Rams have played both the Saints and the Eagles, so um, so we'll see. I think maybe that's partly why in the back of my mind I wanted to see the Bears against the Saints playoffs because we hadn't seen that one yet. But it didn't happen. So but should be a should be a great, uh, a great two days of NFL football. I'll be sitting down with my San Pellegrino and eating

a couple of pretzel sticks and enjoying these. I might have something a little stronger than San Pellegrino, But with that, we are going to call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team and what's going on with the Packers head coach and his assistant staff on Packers dot com. On Twitter, you can still follow him at west hot I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for the team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, We'll see you next time.