Reshaping coaching staff will be vital to Packers' contending window

Jeff Hafley will interview for the Jets' head-coaching position and QB coach Tom Clements has retired, leaving Green Bay looking to the future.

Jeff Hafley won’t be the next head coach of the New York Jets. Probably.

But even if he doesn’t get a serious look at one of the head-coaching vacancies this cycle, the work he’s done with the Green Bay Packers defense will make him appealing for the next cycle and the cycle after that.

Packers head coach Matt LaFleur has already learned what Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Andy Reid, and the best coaches around the league know all too well: When you’re a consistently good team, the teams that aren’t will want a piece of the action. How LaFleur replenishes and revamps his coaching roster will be every bit as important as the decisions that Green Bay makes about its 53-man roster.

We can start with the quarterback coach where LaFleur announced earlier this week Tom Clements would not be returning after two stints with the Packers. Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love each credited Clements with putting up necessary guardrails to help them maximize their unique talents. The question LaFleur has to answer is whether he wants another familiar face to take over that role or if he thinks Love could benefit from a new voice.

Former quarterbacks coach Luke Getsy recently returned to the team after being fired by the Las Vegas Raiders in a sacrifice at the alter of the “I don’t know what else to do” gods by Antonio Pierce. Getsy was once seen as a potential future head coach, but after unsuccessful stretches in Chicago and Las Vegas with brutal quarterback situations, he’s likely looking at position coaching to recuperate his image.

Hiring him back though would bypass Sean Mannion, a former Minnesota Vikings quarterback who LaFleur hired last year after the Chicago Bears failed to offer him the job in the room.

“I’m surprised that they let him out of the building,” LaFleur said in February of 2024. “But they tried to get him. I guess we had more to offer, but we’re lucky to have him. I really do think this guy’s gonna have a bright future for us and certainly in the coaching profession.”

If Mannion doesn’t get the Packers quarterback coach job, the interest from the Bears and his experience in the NFL suggests he’ll have options from other teams as soon as this cycle.

Considering Mannion has only been with the team for one year, he would be considered a quasi-new voice.

ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky offered his services via X (formerly known as Twitter) to LaFleur, who actually has connections to Orlovsky from when the former long-time backup was playing in the NFL. The two were in Houston together all the way back in 2009 and for just a few months in 2017 when LaFleur took over as offensive coordinator with the Los Angeles Rams.

This isn’t as farfetched as it may seem at the outset nor is it social-media pablum. Orlovsky told ESPN radio in Wisconsin in the summer of 2023 that he’d spoken to LaFleur about joining the staff.

“I’ve had conversations with Matt about it, of going out there,” Orlovsky said. “There’s been conversations this offseason. It’ll always be something that I’ve been interested in. Right now, I love being at ESPN. I love being able to get to do what I do and I’m super thankful for that.”

Orlovsky’s deal with ESPN expires after this season though, which presents a leverage opportunity at the very least for him.