Where's Matt? Packers' Coach LaFleur Falls Out Of PFF's Top-10 List

Forbes

2 days ago

Pro Football Focus ranked the NFL's top-10 coaches, and Green Bay's Matt LaFleur didn't make the ... More list.
The bloom is clearly off the rose.
Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur — who had tremendous success his first three years in Titletown — hasn't come close to matching those achievements the last three years.
And his reputation across the NFL is slipping.
Pro Football Focus ranked the NFL's top-10 coaches recently — and LaFleur missed the cut.
That's in stark contrast to recent years when LaFleur was ranked No. 3 in 2021, and ranked sixth in both 2022 and 2024.
Kansas City's Andy Reid, who's led the Chiefs to three Super Bowl championships, is No. 1 on PFF's top-10 list. Denver's Sean Payton, the Los Angeles Rams Sean Payton, Baltimore's John Harbaugh and Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin round out the top five.
Every coach in the top-5 has won at least one Super Bowl title.
The next five are Jim Harbaugh of the Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco's Kyle Shanahan, Philadelphia's Nick Sirianni, Detroit's Dan Campbell and Cleveland's Kevin Stefanski.
Sirianni and the Eagles are the defending Super Bowl champions, while Shanahan and Jim Harbaugh have both led teams to the Super Bowl, but lost.
Campbell and Stefanski are the only two coaches on the list that haven't been to a Super Bowl.
LaFleur looked like one of the NFL's bright young stars when he led the Packers to a 39-10 overall record his first three seasons in Green Bay (2019-2021) and trips to the NFC Championship Game in both 2019 and 2020.
Green Bay has gone 28-23 the last three seasons, though (.549). And the Packers have just one playoff win since reaching the NFC Championship Game in 2020.
LaFleur's overall record of 67-33 is certainly impressive. But he's also coming off arguably the worst of his six seasons as Green Bay's head coach.
While the Packers finished 11-7 in 2024 (including playoffs), they also went 1-5 in the NFC North and were 0-6 against the NFC's top three teams — Philadelphia, Detroit and Minnesota.
LaFleur also struggled with clock management, challenge flags and his own emotions.
During a Week 4 loss to Minnesota at Lambeau Field last season, LaFleur wanted a timeout, the officials didn't see him and he went irate. The result was a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty for his juvenile antics.
'I'm absolutely embarrassed that I got an unsportsmanlike (conduct penalty),' LaFleur said that day. 'When you expect composure from your team and then you're doing that, that's a bad look. I think we all can be better, myself No. 1 at the forefront of that. This is a humbling league at times.'
During Green Bay's 34-31 loss at Detroit on Dec. 5, LaFleur got into a verbal altercation with a Lions fan before the game. The fan was on the field to hold the flag for the national anthem, when he and LaFleur engaged in a lengthy, heated verbal battle.
'He was talking junk to our players, giving them the throat-slash sign, you know,' LaFleur said. 'You're trying to de-escalate it, and then he gets in my face.'
The thing is LaFleur didn't de-escalate it. He made it worse.
It was a bad look for both LaFleur and the Packers.
And perhaps the greatest example of emotion trumping logic came on challenge plays, as LaFleur went 1-6 when throwing his red flag. Dating back to 2023, LaFleur is just 2-12 in his last 14 challenges.
'I'm gonna worry about winning games, and then we'll worry about getting the challenges right,' an irritated LaFleur said late last season. 'How about that?'
On top of it, LaFleur and his Packers didn't match up with the elite teams in the conference.
Not only did Green Bay go 0-6 against the NFC's top three teams, the Packers trailed by double digits in five of those games.
The result is LaFleur's lofty spot on PFF's coaching ranking is gone — at least for now.