Matt LaFleur offers candid thoughts on job security and hot seat during Packers’ frustrating stretch of losses
Packers head coach is in the middle of a tough situation after a sequence of questionable performances, especially on offense.
For the first time since Matt LaFleur took over as the Green Bay Packers head coach back in 2019, there’s real pressure over his job security. Maybe not internally, but there has been a growing sense around fans asking for new president Ed Policy to take action.
LaFleur will be in the final year of his contract next season, and Policy said after taking over that he wouldn’t extend the coach and general manager Brian Gutekunst with two years left on their deals.
Matt LaFleur will keep doing his job
While a mid-season firing (and parting ways overall) is highly unlikely, LaFleur had to answer questions about his job security after the 10-7 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on “Monday Night Football,” the second consecutive home loss for Green Bay.
“I’ll leave that for everybody else to decide,” LaFleur said. “I’ll just focus on the day-to-day and trying to do my job. I feel like you’re always coaching for everything in this league. That’s just my mindset. It’s always been that way. You can’t ever exhale. You’ve always got to be pushing. That will be my mindset until they tell me not to coach anymore.”
If it depends on Jordan Love, though, the quarterback thinks the current coaching staff has what it takes to put the team back on track.
“I’ve got a lot of trust in Matt,” Love said. “That’s something that’s not wavering at all. I’ve been with Matt since I got here. I know exactly what he’s capable of and what the whole staff’s capable of. So that’s not anything that’s wavering. Like I said, it just comes back to all of us — players, coaches, everybody — finding a way to improve and get better.”
Despite the two losses dropping the team’s record to 5-3-1, Matt LaFleur still trusts his roster. After the Eagles game, the coach said his locker room is still a healthy environment.
“I don’t sense any quit in there,” LaFleur added. “It’s a good football team that we went against, and we just have to be better offensively. That’s really the message. I thought our defense played really well, and we did some good things on special teams. Unfortunately, like I’ve said all along, you’ve got to find a way to score more points. It starts with myself, and there’s a level of execution that has to go with that as well.”
Next Sunday, the Packers play the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium in a game where the opponent may be without Jaxson Dart, their starting quarterback. The Giants have also just fired head coach Brian Daboll, and Mike Kafka is the interim. This is the last game before a sequence that includes five divisional games in seven to finalize the regular season.
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