The Green Bay Packers fired longtime head coach Mike McCarthy late in the season as the Packers finished below .500 and missed the postseason for the second straight year.
There was apparent tension between McCarthy and star quarterback Aaron Rodgers during the year over play-calling and game-planning that indicated McCarthy’s time in Green Bay was likely coming to an end. As such, finding a coach that could work with Rodgers and create an offense tailored to his strengths seemed to be of the utmost importance in Green Bay.
On Monday, reports began to come out that the Packers had found that coach in Matt LaFleur, the offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans this season.
Packers are zeroing in on hiring Titans' OC Matt LaFleur as their HC, sources tell @RobDemovsky and me . Packers have begun notifying other HC candidates that they've interviewed that they're out and the team has made its choice.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 7, 2019
The #Packers are hiring former #Titans OC Matt LaFleur as their new head coach, source said. ESPN on it first. They’ve made the first hire.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 7, 2019
The Titans fell just short of the postseason this year and while the offense wasn’t exactly dynamic, it was hindered by injury issues at quarterback. What likely excites the Packers more is that LaFleur spent many years working with Rams coach Sean McVay, the NFL’s most beloved coach at the moment, as offensive coordinator a year ago with McVay in Los Angeles — he was also on staff for a few years with McVay in Washington.
LaFleur was also quarterbacks coach in Atlanta under Kyle Shanahan during the Falcons’ Super Bowl season and the Packers are hoping he can bring some creativity and life to their offense and team to push them back to the playoffs.
