And then there were seven.
Eight days after the conclusion of the 2018 regular season, the first of eight head-coaching jobs has been filled. The Packers, PFT has confirmed, have hired Titans offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur.
The 39-year-old LaFleur, who played college football at Saginaw Valley State, started his coaching career there in 2003. After five years as a college coach, LaFleur became an offensive quality control coach with the Texans. Two years later, LaFleur joined Washington. Four seasons later, he served as quarterbacks coach in Atlanta, working with Kyle Shanahan. LaFleur then become offensive coordinator with the Rams for one year, before taking that same job in Tennessee (where he was working with a defensive coach, giving him more control over the offense).
Now, LaFleur becomes the man in charge of the Packers, with the No. 1 task of working with, and getting the most out of, quarterback Aaron Rodgers. LaFleur has worked with the likes of Matt Schaub, Donovan McNabb, Robert Griffin III, Kirk Cousins, Matt Ryan, Jared Goff, and Marcus Mariota. Rodgers will, by far, be LaFleur’s best quarterback and, in turn, his biggest challenge.
As Rodgers, only four years younger than LaFleur, enters the stretch run of his career, LaFleur will be charged with trying to get the most out of a guy who, as it relates to the pursuit of championships, has underachieved in recent years. With G.M. Brian Gutekunst ready to spend on free agents, things could get very interesting very quickly in Green Bay.