Don't miss the job Matt LaFleur is doing shepherding yet another version of the Packers in 2024

LaFleur took over a broken culture in Green Bay, rebuilt them into contenders, oversaw a Hall of Fame quarterback transition and has the Packers back once again.

It started in 2019. The Green Bay Packers had done the unthinkable: fired a Super Bowl-winning head coach in the middle of the season while the quarterback pouted and considered a path toward psychotropics. Lombardi Avenue rarely saw this type of upheaval, but the culture needed to be overhauled just as much as the coaching staff. That’s not what Matt LaFleur was hired to do specifically, but he did it anyway and did it with aplomb. Five years later, he’s seen the Packers move through distinct iterations and once again got this team back to contention, this time with a new hand-picked quarterback and a young, hungry Pack.

LaFleur came to Green Bay as part of the McVay gold rush, hired to reinvigorate a then two-time MVP whose play stagnated as his relationship with Mike McCarthy aged like warm milk — and not the kind used to make cheese. Get Aaron Rodgers back on track and then shepherd in the next era of Packers football with a quarterback of your own.

But head coaches have to manage more than just the quarterback, especially when that quarterback is that quarterback. A 39-year-old first-time head coach, LaFleur had only called plays one year in the NFL, a stilted, single season in Tennessee to middling results. Surely, he couldn’t manage all of this in Year 1.

Before he ever called a play in Green Bay, LaFleur installed a player-led culture. By the end of a 13-3 turnaround season, players like David Bakhtiari, Bryan Bulaga, and Rodgers himself lauded LaFleur for bringing joy back into the game for them. They were having fun playing football again. A relative coaching neophyte had managed some of the biggest personalities in the NFL and in just one year had the Packers in the NFC Championship Game.