Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur is not going to win NFL Coach of the Year in 2023. At some sportsbooks, LaFleur is not even a top 10 candidate. This might be a reflection of the volume of excellent coaching jobs done across the NFL this season, and also the fact that the Packers just barely snuck into the postseason. Not many coaches who finish with nine wins become NFL Coach of the Year — Brian Daboll at 9-7-1 last year was the first to win the award with fewer than 10 wins since 1990.
But there’s still a real case to be made for LaFleur as the NFL’s best coach in 2023.
The Packers improved by just one win this season, going from 8-9 last year to 9-8 in 2023. This fact is only unimpressive on the surface.
The Packers traded away future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers, let eight veteran players who were on the field for at least 250 snaps last season walk in free agency and didn’t re-sign veteran kicker Mason Crosby. General manager Brian Gutekunst hit the reset button and handed LaFleur the youngest team in football, and the Packers not only improved but made the postseason.
LaFleur expertly navigated through a transition from Rodgers to Jordan Love at quarterback, handled the ups and downs of the early-season inconsistencies expected of a young team, oversaw drastic and meaningful development/progression on the offensive side of the ball and powered the Packers to the playoffs on the back of a quarterback and offense playing as well as any in football over the second half of the 2023 season.
Love’s rapid ascension is a direct reflection of LaFleur, both as a developer of the quarterback position and a playcaller. In almost every possible way, Love — despite a rocky early stretch — outplayed the 2022 version of Rodgers. He became the Packers’ first quarterback to lead the team to the postseason in his first year as a starter. He threw for 32 touchdown passes and over 4,000 yards, joining Patrick Mahomes and Kurt Warner as the only first-time starters to hit both numbers. Once LaFleur and Love got in a rhythm as a playcaller and quarterback, Love played on par with Rodgers’ 2021 MVP season over a brilliant 10-game stretch to end the year.
The Packers offense depended on more rookies and first-time starters than any other in football but still finished third in sacks allowed, sixth in giveaways and fifth on third down. Only the Packers and 49ers were in the top six in all three categories in 2023.
LaFleur couldn’t even lean on veterans. David Bakhtiari played one game. Aaron Jones missed or was limited in as many as nine games. Christian Watson missed eight games. Injuries affected the gameday roster each and every week. The offensive explosion was fueled by Love and a host of rookies, including Jayden Reed, Tucker Kraft and Dontayvion Wicks. The Packers got big contributions from second-year players such as Zach Tom, Rasheed Walker and Romeo Doubs. By the end of the year, the Packers had set NFL records for catches and receiving yards by rookies.
LaFleur deserves blame for the defensive struggles because he made no significant changes and willingly kept Joe Barry in charge for the full duration of a third season. His lack of action on the defensive side likely cost the Packers a chance to winning the NFC North. This is probably a much different argument had the Packers finished 12-5 and won the division.
Still, it’s hard to ignore everything the young Packers accomplished, especially down the stretch. Wins over the Lions and Chiefs in back-to-back primetime games ignited the season, and a three-game win streak to end the season was enough for the Packers to get back over .500 and into the playoffs as the No. 7 in the NFC. LaFleur’s team had zero Pro Bowlers yet still finished 6-2 over the final eight games.
Winning nine games is an incredible accomplishment especially when considering the Packers essentially lit $60 million in cap space on fire by trading Rodgers and voiding the contracts of several veterans this offseason. When Bakhtiari went out after one week, another $20 million in cap commitments wasn’t available. The Packers went through the 2023 season while missing almost a third of total salary cap, creating a massive (but also self-induced) handicap.
Voters ignored LaFleur as a candidate when he won 13 games in back-to-back-to-back seasons because of the quarterback, forgetting the fact that LaFleur was a big reason why Rodgers revived his career and regained MVP status. Now, LaFleur is getting no love despite everything he’s done to turn his current first-year starting quarterback into one of the most valuable players in football over the final 2.5 months of the season. And he turned what everyone labeled as a rebuilding year in Green Bay into an inspired playoff appearance despite no meaningful additions to the roster outside of rookie draft picks.
Did LaFleur do an “outstanding job of working with the talent as his disposal,” as outlined by the award? The answer is a triumphant yes.
No, LaFleur is not going to win the award in 2023. Many others have an equally compelling case, and Kevin Stefanski is the odds-on favorite as of Wednesday. But the 2023 season did prove one important thing to open the post-Rodgers era in Green Bay: LaFleur is one of the NFL’s very best coaches, regardless of award recognition.
