For seven years, Mike Holmgren led Green Bay as head coach. Holmgren didn’t fire any assistant coaches during that period.
With four games remaining in the 2018 season, Mike McCarthy was fired after leading the Packers for twelve and a half seasons. McCarthy dismissed five coordinators throughout his tenure.
Just five seasons have Matthew Patrick LaFleur been a coach in Green Bay. And during that period, LaFleur, who has a choir boy’s face, has already dismissed four coordinators and played the Grim Reaper several times.
Shawn Mennenga and Maurice Drayton, the coordinators of special teams, and defensive coordinators Mike Pettine and Joe Barry were given the pink slips by LaFleur.
During his tenure as Green Bay’s head coach, LaFleur has accomplished a great deal of success. Obtaining competent coordinators has not shown to be an asset.
After canning Barry last week, LaFleur is looking for a defensive coordinator once more. There is also pressure on LaFleur to make the right appointment if the Packers, who made it to the NFC divisional playoffs this season, want to advance in 2024.
We will be arriving. Regarding Green Bay’s future, right guard Elgton Jenkins stated, We’re coming with a purpose.
We aim to triumph in every way. I think we could have succeeded this year, but I have a lot of hope for next year.
The boys are inside the building. Everything we require to finish it is here. All we have to do is go do it. This year, we laid a solid basis. All we have to do is go win.
LaFleur needs to make a huge impression on his new defensive coordinator in order for that to occur.
That LaFleur continually failing to land coordinators should give Packer Nation nightmares.
Despite having no past relationship with McCarthy, LaFleur kept Pettine on his final crew. Despite the reasonable outcomes, such collaboration was short-lived, lasting only two seasons.
Under Pettine, Green Bay’s defense finished 18th in total yards and ninth in points allowed in 2019. The Packers ranked 13th in points scored and ninth in total defense in 2020.
However, there appeared to be a gulf between Pettine and LaFleur in the 2020 campaign. The last straw came in the closing seconds of the first half of the NFC Championship Game, when the Packers were down to one safety and cornerback Kevin King gave up a 39-yard touchdown to Scotty Miller of Tampa Bay.
Two weeks later, the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl after winning 31–26.
Following that game, LaFleur declared, Definitely not the proper call for the situation.” “You cannot play like that and expect to win against a strong football team.
That was the main distinction in the football match. That is just not something you can do. I hold it against us as coaches to have placed our guys in that predicament.
That is not acceptable. That wasn’t supposed to occur. Therefore, we need to examine it, engage in some introspection, and work to identify preventative measures for it from happening in the future.
Five days later, Pettine was no longer in use. After speaking with nine applicants, LaFleur decided to hire Barry, an old acquaintance from his days as a Los Angeles Rams player.
In fact, over Barry’s three years with the team, Green Bay’s defense worsened.
Under Barry, the Packers’ average position was 14th, and they concluded the season ranked 17th overall in defense. During the Barry era, Green Bay’s average scoring defense ranking was also 14th.
Barry’s defense faltered once more in the divisional playoffs versus San Francisco, with the season at stake.
With little over five minutes remaining, Green Bay led 21–17 and only needed one stop to get to the NFC Championship Game.
Rather, San Francisco marched 69 yards in 12 plays, and Christian McCaffrey’s touchdown from 6 yards out gave them the lead.
Twelve of the previous thirteen picks made by the Packers, including their last four, have come from the defensive end of the ball.
This year, Green Bay had eight defensive players selected in the first round, and the organization thought that group should have been among the best.
It wasn’t, which ultimately resulted in Barry’s termination.
The search for a special teams coordinator hasn’t gone any better for LaFleur.
