#476 Packers Unscripted: Coaching connection

But one of these storylines that's been interesting to follow as we lead up to this big matchup, and it's a first in the sense of Matt Lafleur's first year as head coach and where he is in his career, and that is that his counterpart on the other sideline is someone that he goes back a long way with, and I'm talking about Kyle Shanahan, the head coach of the San Francisco forty Niners, And you posted a story on our website with regard to their connection and when

it started and how far back it goes and how it's evolved. So why don't you give us the rundown on the background between La Fleur and Shannon. Well, this is what's fun about you know life, right, the small circles we all run in the six degrees of separation. You know, I can tell you one story here at the Green Bay Packers. My good friend Nick Goddard, the best man in my wedding, works in the Packers video department. Now I worked for him when he was a manager

at Hey. I don't even know if I could say the fast food chain restaurant. I'm not sure for allowed to or not, but we worked the other when I was fifteen, sixteen years old in Green Bay, Wisconsin. You follow your path, we both end up with the Green Bay Packers, the old teenage fast food job, old teenage fast food job. You and I have both been there.

And it's funny because even though these are the best, you know jobs in the NFL, the biggest you know spots and professional football, everybody has those same kind of stories, right, And you look at Kyle Shanahan and Matt la Floor. These guys go back to two thousand and eight together when Shanahan was an offensive coordinator for Gary Kubiak, who was spoiler alert, an actual disciple of Mike Shanahan Kyle's father with the Denver Broncos and they were looking for

an offensive quality control assistant. Robert Sala, the defensive quality control assistant who happened to be college roommates and g a with Matt Lafleur at Central Michigan in two thousand four, ends up opening up that door. And it was remarkable when Shanahan was speaking to the Green Bay Reporters on his conference called Wednesday Afternoon. You know I wrote that

story back in January, documenting Lafleur's rise. I don't know if I ever fully paused enough to appreciate how he was a quality control assistant for two years with the Houston Texans prior to becoming an NFL quarterbacks coach. I mean that jump that he made in Shanahan's said it. He's like when he decided to follow his dad to Washington to be his o C. He needed he wanted the floor and Kubiak wanted to keep the floor. So what did he do? He made him the QB coach

brings him with him to Washington. He said he was kind of overseeing him that first year, but it didn't take long to figure out that this guy could handle it. He gave him that room, arguably the most important position in football, the most important position coach in football. And then they spend those three plus years together in Washington, they end up in Atlanta together, and now here we are, eleven years after those two first met, now for the

first time, having this collision courses head coaches. With Shanahan leading in a nine into San Francisco forty Niners team against Matt Lafour's very resurgent Green Bay Packers at eight and two. The story doesn't get any better than that. Yeah, absolutely, And you mentioned Robert sala and the whole connection going back to Central Michigan and how he got the door open for Matt Lafleur to get into the NFL Sunday night at Levi Stadium. Matt Lafleur will be calling the

offensive plays for the Green Bay Packers. Robert Salow, the defensive coordinator of the forty Niners, will be calling those defensive sets to try to counter what Matt Lafleur is doing offensively. And then to add another twist or another element to the story, the passing game coordinator for Kyle Shanahan is none other than Mike Lafleur, the younger brother of Matt Lafleur, who Matt Lafleur wanted to interview and presumably would have hired him to join him on his

Green base. Don't hire him. Yeah, I'm not quite sure how that would have gone over at at Christmas and Thanksgiving. But um, but Mike Lafleur is still in San Francisco because Kyle Shanahan was not going to let him go. He's been a big part of what they've been building offensively with these running backs with Jimmy Garoppolo, and Kyle Shanahan said on the conference call with Green Bay Media he plans to have Mike Lafleur with him until michaela

Fleur becomes a head coach himself. Yeah, and it was funny. And again this is a topic that Shanahan had to tackle at the combine. I think he was even asked about at the owners meetings in March, to be honest with you, and both times he said yeah, I mean no, I mean I was I wasn't letting him walk out

of the door. He thinks really highly and Mike as he does Matt, and he he was asked by Matt Sneidman from the Athletic and Green Bay here about if he felt guilty, if he felt bad at I'll not be able to do it, And he said no, I looked very much forward to saying no to that request when Matt pushed that through. Yeah, if you want to know how cutthroat the business of coaching and winning football

games is in the NFL, there you go. He did not feel badly at all for not letting the brothers reunite in Green And he said a couple of times like if they pushed hard enough, maybe he would have been okay with it, But then he always comes back with probably not. And you know what, you can't lie. I mean, Mike, you look at what they've done this season. I mean, there's been a secret that San Francisco has just been able to unleash here and the mega rebuild

that Shanahan has put that organization through. Remember where they were in two thousands six team and when he was hired and the they had to find a quarterback, they had to reinvent the defense, they had to find some playmakers offensively. Yeah, they were at that point. They were a long way from that forty Niners team in the early part of this decade that went to three straight NFC Championship games, went to a Super Bowl that the

roster had practically been gutted essentially from what that team was. Yeah, so they had a big job ahead of them. And the thing I like about it. You talked about Sala, You talk about you know Adam Stanovich, who's now the offensive line coach for Green Bay. He was the assistant last year at the Fort. You know, those are tough times. And he jokes now with La Fleur about how you know it took him until week nine of his first year as a head coach to win a game, La Fleur,

It took him one the opener against Chicago. But there's a lot of times that those coaches, they'll panic, they'll make changes, they'll do things abruptly. Shanahan did not do that. He knew from the beginning when he became a head coach he wanted Solid to be his defensive coordinator. Salo had been in Jacksonville. Incidentally enough, with Nathaniel Hackett, who's now the offensive corner for Green Bay. He had been

a linebackers coach there. He brings him in. Shanahan wanted to have him as his d C. He found you know, he brought up uh, Matt's younger brother. And here they are now being able to, you know, lay claim at least for one more week here that they're the number one team in the NFC. And I just think there are so many ties to this, and you can tell Shannahan and the Floor do not want this to be about them, but you do have to step back and appreciate when these guys that are kind of climbed that

tree to get to where they are right now. Every once in a while you got to step back and look at it and appreciate for it for what it is. Because there's gonna be a lot of friends competing against one another. And I think to me, it reminds you a lot of just playing with your buddies in the backyard or you know, you know, getting out the chess

board and having some fun. I mean, it's just it's that type of challenge that those two pushed each other when they were younger coaches, and they're gonna push each other against Sunday night for the better team to win. Well, here's an interesting one to throw at you because with Matt lie Fleur obviously getting off to a great start in Green Bay with what the San Francisco forty Niners

are doing this year. And Kyle Shanahan obviously believes that Mike Lafleur has head coach a head coach title in his future. Are we going to be talking one of these days on Packers unscripted about Matt Lafleur versus Mike Lafleur, two head coaches in the NFL, Brothers going ahead to head that you know, uh, the harbaugh Um clash redo with with a couple of brothers. Yeah, you and I talking in the pre production meeting about how often this

has actually happened before. Other than the hardballs, we couldn't come up with anything else. And as far as head coach is going toe to toe against each other, and I'll tell you what we'll have to see. Obviously, both those guys are very young. Matt just touch forty. I don't even Mike. I think maybe it's thirty seven. I mean, like they are young and their coaching professional. It's probably

a testament to both their their work ethic. And as Shanahan said too, I mean none of this comes as a surprise when he looks at what Matt has done, you know. He he compared it a lot to what they did with Matt Ryan and at Anna. You have an m v P quarterback, you have one of the top quarterbacks the NFL. Those guys are going to be successful. But finding a way to utilize your scheme to maximize that player in the other ten offensive players on the field with him, this is not a surprise. He was

very proud, and he said he's pulling for him. He's just not pulling for him too hard, considering they both share the same conference and ultimately the same goal. Yeah. Absolutely, Well, quickly here West, before I forget select, Cousin Subs locations are now offering delivery. Whether you're ordering catering or your favorite sub, they're delivering right to you when you order online at Cousin Subs dot com. Cousin Subs. We believe

in better. Okay. On yesterday's show, we talked quite a bit about the forty Niners and particularly that defense, a defense that's wrapped up thirty nine sacks, a defense that's

third in the NFL with twenty two takeaways. I posted a story late on Wednesday just looking at this matchup of the Packers offense against the forty Niners defense, and aside from the obvious, which is to protect Aaron Rodgers and protect the football, when I talk about those sack and take away stats, I think an interesting thing going into this game is the way we've seen this Packers offense evolved. They had to survive for a month without

Davante Adams. They've found a nice balance between Aaron Jones and Jamal Williams in the backfield. We've seen other guys emerge. We've seen Alan Lazard makes some plays. We've seen Jimmy Graham makes some significant contributions along the way. It just has this feeling, and especially with the Packers coming off of a bye week where the coaches have reviewed the film, they've had a chance to reset. You know, maybe there are gonna be some new things, some new wrinkles that

will get thrown in. It just seems like one of these games where somebody is going to emerge from the shadows for the Packers offensively, if they're to come out victorious in this game, There's going to be a storyline late Sunday night from the locker room when we're working on our stuff on the plane on the flight home. A storyline that we're not talking about right now, that's going to be a storyline in this game. I'm curious if you have any gut feeling as to what direction

this might go. Mason Crosby three carries for thirty five yards. That's my prediction. Now, Hey, the thing I was joking about earlier in addition to that is that, I mean, would it be something if it's Danny vitally? Because all week long the narrative and I even talked if I tell you about this this week, I mean, Kyle Uschek is considered the guy at that position right now, the

ultra fullback. Yeah, if I tell even called him the fullback go, and he has so much respect for him, and he's been just a perfect fit for what Shanahan does. If there'd be any way that floor could out Shanahan Shanahan with the fullback position, that would be incredible. That'd be something really would be really fun to watch. But you'd have fun writing about that on the plane on the way home. That something else? Yeah, No, But I mean,

who doesn't love a good fullback catch? But you know, here's the thing that's been beautiful about this offense, and I think you know, you see, although those two offensive schemes have gradually evolved, uh, you know, from what the Floor does and what Shanahan likes to do, there is

a similarity there with how they utilize their personnel. I would argue the Packers probably have a few more established playmakers in terms of just the league wide notoriety right now with Davante Adams and the peak of his you know, his profession, you know, and Aaron Jones and Jamal Williams. But they can get multiple and they can get contributions from across the board from any number of skill position players. Certainly for the forty Niners, that guy has been George Kittle.

We'll see what his availability looks like this week. But in Green Bay, it's no longer that two thousand fourteen. Okay, you're gonna see Jordy Nelson, you're gonna see Davante Adams, and you're gonna see Randall Cobb. And that's going to be the unit that plays sixty snaps plus together each game. They're gonna mix and match personnel, and I think, if you want to credit, you know, the Floor for anything in terms of what his scheme has brought to Green Bay.

It's that multiplicity. It's being able to use those many different personnel combinations to not only work a you know where down a defense, but also get the most out of those players. So, yes, you're absolutely right, someone needs to step up, someone needs to emerge in this game. But the beautiful thing is, for Green Bay, you just don't even know who that's going to be, right. I

think that's what makes this matchup so in intriguing. Obviously, the stakes and everything with these two teams being at the top of the NFC, the Packers coming off of the bye week. You just look at statistically some of the things that you would not believe to be true for a Packers team that's eight in too. Davante Adams does not have a touchdown reception yet, coming off of three consecutive double digit touchdown seasons. Who is leading the

Green Bay Packers in touchdown receptions from Aaron Rodgers. It's a running back and it's not Aaron Jones. It's Jamal Williams. He's got five. That's more than anybody else. We haven't seen Marcedes Lewis catch a touchdown pass yet in a Green Bay uniform. You mentioned vitality as a possibility. Maybe you know, we've we've seen some plays with him, but then other other games he's not necessarily a big part of the game plan. Marquis Veldez Scantling. He's got five

past receptions of forty plus yards this season. He has nine in his career essentially one and a half years in the NFL. But he's been playing through some knee and ankle injuries. He only has one catch in the last three games. So is he suddenly going to re emerge and become the big play guy in this offense? So there are a lot of possibilities. And I think what Matt Lafleur really likes about his team and what he likes about this offense is they've found different ways

and different guys to get the job done. And I think Aaron Rodgers likes that as well, because it makes the Packers, you know, not not the most predictable offense in the world. Absolutely, and even if you want to even take it to another level, Mike, I mean Big Bob Tanyan's baby boy, Robert Jr. He's also a full participant in Wednesday's practice, hopefully for him being able to return after a month and a half layoff from that

hip injury. Sure, Jay Sternberger played twelve snaps before the by He looked pretty good in past protection and what some of the blocking the assignments he was asked to do. They want to be able to throw the kitchen sink at you. That's when this offense is at its best. And be honest with you, both of these offenses are

at their best. My biggest takeaway though, listening to Rodgers at his locker on Wednesday, the parson that I was there for was him discussing how when you look at al Lazard, when you look at Geronto Allison, former undrafted free agents, they came through the door and that was not too big for them. None of this was too big from And that's an easy thing to say, becomes cliche at times, but you kind of remember these are

undrafted guys. You know Kumro coming from Whitewater, Toronto, Ellis didn't play a lot in college between his community college and then going to Illinois. And then you have Lazard, who was a record breaking huge receiver at Iowa State, but then he's on a practice squad for a year with the Jaguars to see those guys come in and just fill those roles and look at it like any other game, any other quarterback, and be able to fulfill

their their assignments. Yes, it hasn't been one guy that's catching seven, seven hundred yards and fifty passes, but the group of that has been what's complimented this offense and that's why the Packers have had success. Yeah, and maybe maybe the guy to keep an eye on in this game. Quite frankly, as Alan Lazar John Coon pointed out in our three Things video yesterday, Alan Lazard leads the Packers

offense in targeted passes over the last five games. You know, obviously Davantae Adams has only been back for a couple of those, but Alan's Art is the leader in that category. You go back to the to the l A game against the Chargers, not that we want to relive um all the downs of that, but the Packers were getting nothing going, nothing was working. And then when they finally did in the fourth quarter and put together a touchdown drive, who was the guy who came off the bench and

started moving the chains. It was Alan waz Art. He came off the bench, the ball was going his way, the Packers got something going there, so you wonder, um, you know, coming off the bye week here, if um, if Alan Lazard is is potentially a guy to keep an eye on. But again, as we've been saying, it could be any number of guys who might emerge, you know, be that someone different that Aaron Rodgers talked about it as locker that makes a difference in this game. Well.

And and the other thing too that I want to go back to. You mentioned Davante Adams and the fact that he doesn't have the touchdown catch this year. But you can tell me to go to hell, Michigan with this if you need me to. But I I personally believe within the red area this year, the Packers have been just so much better with their utilization of the running backs. As you mentioned, Jamal Williams has five touchdown catches.

How many times has Aaron Jones been able to punch something in the end zone from thirteen fourteen yards out? This year, they've been so much more efficient in there. There seems like so many times in recent years where it'd be like, you know, since maybe that Eddie Lacey era, you know, at the end of that fourteen season where he was pretty dominant where they've just been getting inside

the twenty. We gotta find a way to get the ball to Davante Adams or Randall Cobb, and if that doesn't happen, you're gonna have to sell for a field goal. It's not like that right now. Yeah. The best the best teams, the best teams in the red zone consistently over the long haul, over a sixteen game season and playoffs. The best teams in the red zone are the ones who can run the ball in the red zone that

you know the safeties aren't playing yards deep. You get in the red zone, everything is a little bit tighter, but you can still run the ball. You can still kind of punch a team in the mouth, get yourself into good down and distant situations on second and third down, and then open up the playbook. And that's because you can run the ball in some tight quarters. And you've seen, I mean you want you talked about vitally Vitalis wheel

Road a month ago. You know, being able to put that out there and get down to the one yard line when you get that stuff on film. Those are all things that defense corners have taken into account. Jimmy Graham's couple of touchdown catches this year. Just being able to have that many options, Packers have been I want to see that the second team in the league right now, or maybe third in terms of red zone offense and

efficiency in producing touchdowns. That has not been something they've done well over the years, at least the recent years. That's been a turnaround this year. So regardless of whether or not it's Stavant Adams or not. And I guarantee you see, if you gave him six games, he's gonna get you some touchdown catches. But even last week, Mike thirty five yard catches twice, both of those ended up leading to touchdown drives at Aaron Jones ended up scoring on.

That's what matters. That's what they want to accomplish this season, and right now the Packers have it all in front of them. Yeah, and when you look again, just looking at how you never know what's going to happen. Aaron Jones has that big game as a wide receiver in Kansas City. The last two games, he's caught one pass for negative one yard. So does you know, does that suddenly shift back to being an offensive focus where Aaron Jones can make some things happen in the passing game.

You just don't know necessarily where this is going to go. And everyone talks about McVeigh, and again credit to him for a lot of the principles he brought in and some of the things that have been pushed to the forefront here the league the last two years. But this is the thing that Bill Belichick has just dominated with

in the league over the last ten years. Match up based problems and being able to use your personnel in different types of situations, looking at your entire depth chart and seeing if there's a way that you can execute. Lafleur has been phenomenal with that so far, and it's one of the reasons why the Packers sit at eight and two going into this very big matchup. And it's why we call this a week to week league because

that it really is what it is. But with that we will call a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers dot com. You can subscribe to us, like us on iTunes and other podcast services, and please check out our new YouTube channel. The Packers have a YouTube channel, Packers unscripted. All sorts of other videos from packers dot com are on that YouTube channels, so devour all that content. I think you'll like it. And with that,

thank you for watching everybody. We will see you next time.