GREEN BAY, Wis. — In some ways, Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur has an entirely different job this season.
Four years ago, LaFleur was hired to get Aaron Rodgers back to an elite level after a sharp decline in production. In their second season together, Rodgers won the third of his four NFL MVPs.
Although they didn’t win a Super Bowl together — didn’t even get to one — LaFleur might now look back on the past four years as light work considering all he has to do now is turn Jordan Love into the third straight Packers quarterback to win multiple MVPs and a Super Bowl.
Good thing LaFleur has experience breaking in a new quarterback.
While most of his recent work has come with veterans — before Rodgers it was Ryan Tannehill in Tennessee and Matt Ryan in Atlanta — it should not be forgotten LaFleur has coached younger quarterbacks before. He served as Washington’s quarterbacks coach when the team drafted Robert Griffin III in 2012 and made him an immediate starter. He was the Rams offensive coordinator in 2016 when Jared Goff became a full-time starter.
“There were highs and lows all along the way,” LaFleur said recently. “I think we’re going to have to be really, really intentional about what we give all these guys because ultimately it’s the whole collective that go out there and have to perform and go out there and execute at a high level.”
Quarterbacks coach Tom Clements will be as important to Love as anyone inside Lambeau Field. Last offseason, LaFleur brought back Clements, whose first stint with the Packers went from 2006 to 2016, because Rodgers wanted to work with him again.
That also allowed Love to learn from Clements the things — specifically footwork and timing — that Rodgers believed shaped him early in his development. Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich, passing game coordinator Jason Vrable and assistant quarterbacks coach Connor Lewis will have a part in Love’s success or failure, too.
Ultimately, though, it’s on LaFleur.
“Any great coach will tell you that the relationship between the head coach and the quarterback is the most important relationship on the entire team,” said Griffin, who is an analyst for ESPN. “Matt’s a relationship guy. At the end of the day, from Matt, it’s all about building that relationship to where you trust him.”
Griffin noticed that in LaFleur from the start.
“He sat me down in our first meeting, and he told me: ‘What we coach you to do is what we expect you to do out there on the field. So if we coach you on something and you do that to a T, we’re not going to come back in film room and circle or highlight this guy that’s wide open who’s not one of your reads,’” Griffin recalled.
At the time, all Griffin thought to himself was: “OK cool, I’m just going to hit the open guy.”
“But when I look back on it in retrospect, they were just trying to say, ‘Listen, we’ve got your back. You’re going to make some plays just because of your natural ability, but if you listen to us and trust us, we’re not going to throw you under the bus,’” Griffin said. “And I thought that Matt always stayed true to that, and I think that’s why Jordan Love will have the best chance at being successful because he’s got a head coach that understands how to manage the quarterback.”
Griffin didn’t have the three-year head start with LaFleur that Love has had. Griffin played immediately and won NFC Offensive Rookie of the Year, although a late-season knee injury altered the rest of his career.
Year 4 unofficially began on Monday, when Love reported for the start of the Packers’ offseason program.
Mother Nature welcoming us back to work! ❄️ @jordan3love | #GoPackGo pic.twitter.com/x9fcGkr2H3
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) April 17, 2023
“People ask, what can Matt do to help Jordan?” Griffin said. “He’s already done that. He’s built the relationship. You’ve seen the improvement from Jordan Love on the field in his limited snaps. Last year, he looked light years ahead of where he was in his previous stints. And I think he’s got the confidence of the coaching staff and the front office now that was maybe lacking last year.”
All anyone on the outside has to go on is what they’ve seen from Love in his brief game action. He struggled in his only career start — a 13-7 loss at Kansas City in 2021 when Rodgers was out with COVID — but was more productive in two series this past season in relief against the Eagles in late November. He led a pair of fourth-quarter scoring drives on his only two possessions after Rodgers left with a rib injury.
“That’s why that whole process is critical to everything you do,” said former NFL coach Todd Haley. “These guys have to go through that and develop and learn until you trust him enough to say, ‘All right, he can play.’”
There’s a long way between those experiences and what Love will soon face week after week.
“You’ve got to throw as much at him as humanly possible,” LaFleur said.
That will include a joint practice with another team (that team has not been announced yet) plus much more work than most starting quarterbacks will get in preseason games.
“Certainly Jordan doesn’t have a lot of game reps, so you want to give him as much as possible,” LaFleur said. “I would say our whole situation is going to be very fluid in terms of you’ve got to stay one step ahead of the game and what needs [he has] in order for him to develop the way we want him to develop.”
And that will be in LaFleur’s hands.
“Obviously we have a great coaching staff, he’s been in our system for three years, he’s comfortable with the players around him,” Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said. “This is a hard league, it’s tough to be successful. But at the same time, I know he’s put in the work. There’s going to be adversity, it doesn’t matter who you are, there’s going to be adversity. So how you respond to that, how you overcome it, will be a big factor for him and his learning phase — kinda get those scars, if you will, so he can be successful moving forward.”