Following the Green Bay Packers’ collapse at Soldier Field this past Wild Card weekend, some fans and seasoned analysts alike called for the Packers to fire coach Matt LaFleur. We’ve since learned that LaFleur will stay and negotiate a contract extension with new Packers president Ed Policy in the coming days, barring any sudden change of direction from the front office.
When considering the case for keeping — or not keeping — LaFleur as the head coach, it’s important to look back on other coaches with similar résumés who were fired. How did these teams pan out after they fired their coaches, and how did these coaches fare on their new teams?
Marty Schottenheimer is probably the closest parallel to LaFleur in terms of production and postseason success. Schottenheimer took over as head coach of the Cleveland Browns midway through the 1984 season.
He went on to make the playoffs every other full season of his tenure there. Like the rest of his coaching career, Schottenheimer could never truly take his team over the playoff hump. Cleveland even blew a 21-3 lead at halftime during his first playoff game. Sound familiar? After three more winning seasons and three more playoff letdowns, Schottenheimer and Brown’s owner, Art Modell, agreed to part ways.
Schottenheimer’s four-and-a-half-year stint with Cleveland significantly resembled LaFleur’s tenure in Green Bay. His postseason failures are largely attributed to conservatism despite multiple winning seasons. We all know what happened to the Browns after Schottenheimer left. They moved to Baltimore, and they’ve had an endless streak of misery after returning in 1999.
However, the Kansas City Chiefs later hired Schottenheimer, and he made the playoffs in seven of his 10 seasons there. After a short stretch with Washington and a similar story in San Diego, Schottenheimer finished his coaching career without making a Super Bowl. Several playoff collapses have stained his otherwise stellar coaching résumé. He’s eighth on the list of winningest head coaches in NFL history.
Tony Dungy also has a similar story to LaFleur when Dungy coached the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Although Dungy specialized more on the defensive side of the ball, he and LaFleur have experienced both regular-season success and playoff frustration.
Dungy made the playoffs in four of his six seasons with Tampa Bay and popularized the cover-2 defense, otherwise known as Tampa 2. Dungy landed with a Buccaneers team that featured Derrick Brooks and Warren Sapp, two future Hall of Famers, and relied heavily on his stacked defense.
LaFleur’s early years were defined mostly by the Aaron Rodgers-Davante Adams duo, which sounds all too familiar now.
After the Bucs fired Dungy following a 9-7 season and a Wild Card loss, Jon Gruden led Tampa Bay to a Super Bowl victory in his first season with the team. Dungy later coached the Indianapolis Colts, where he won a Super Bowl with Peyton Manning and had a .759 winning percentage.
Andy Reid is perhaps the best example of a questionable coach firing in recent memory. As head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1999 to 2012, Reid finished with a winning percentage of .583 and led the Eagles to the playoffs in nine of his 14 years coaching.
Parallels to LaFleur can be drawn with Reid, because both have ties to Green Bay. Philadelphia boasted a dynamic offense in Reid’s early years, but could never quite break through and win a Lombardi. However, Reid’s tenure was much longer than LaFleur’s and featured higher highs and lower lows.
Reid led the Eagles to the big game but also ended his stint in Philadelphia on a 4-12 season. The Eagles were decent following Reid’s firing. Still, they didn’t win a Super Bowl until they hired Doug Peterson, two coaches removed from Reid. However, Reid had instant success with the Chiefs, inheriting Alex Smith and eventually Patrick Mahomes. Reid went on to win three Super Bowls with Kansas City.
Although comparing these three coaching legends to Matt LaFleur may seem like a stretch, there are still lessons to be learned from their combined tenures. Falling into complacency and conservative playcalling are the main drivers for playoff frustration.
Matt LaFleur will very likely return as Green Bay’s head coach next season. While the length and details of his contract are yet to be determined, he will be under intense scrutiny in a prove-it year with a (hopefully) healthy roster.
It’s impossible to say what would happen to LaFleur or Green Bay if the sides chose to part ways. However, we know that there will be a change come the start of next season.