Coming into the season, the Green Bay Packers were already viewed as a likely playoff contender after winning 11 games last season. After they traded for Micah Parsons, the odds of Matt LaFleur reaching the playoffs for the sixth time since becoming the Packers’ head coach in 2019 only improved.
Now nine games into a season in which the Packers are sitting at 5-3-1 following their 10-7 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, it’s not a stretch to say that Green Bay is underperforming thus far.
Once the Packers lost, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio started to wonder just how safe LaFleur’s job is in Green Bay. Is he in danger of getting fired if the Packers don’t live up to expectations of being one of the NFC’s top playoff contenders? LaFleur was already asked whether he’s coaching for his job. Instead of offering an informed response, he didn’t want to speculate on something that won’t be left up to him.
“I’ll leave that for everybody else to decide. I’ll just focus on the day-to-day. . . . I feel like you’re always coaching for everything in this league, you know? That’s just my mindset. It’s always been that way. You can’t ever exhale. You gotta always be pushing. That’s just my mindset and that will be my mindset ’til they tell me not to coach anymore.”
Matt LaFleur on job security
While he has not won a Super Bowl, LaFleur is regarded as one of the NFL’s best head coaches, holding a record of 72-36-1 across seven seasons. But his 3-5 record in the postseason is much more underwhelming.
Thus, LaFleur should be on the hot seat, especially if the Packers fail to do any sort of damage in the playoffs later this year. For now, they just need to figure out how to get back on the right track again, and much of that starts with LaFleur.
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