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Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur has cultivated a strong relationship with franchise quarterback Aaron Rodgers over their first two seasons together, but even he can admit there has been a moment or two of growing pains between them.
LaFleur recently spoke about the Packers’ reigning NFL MVP during an interview with The Ringer’s Flying Coach podcast, breaking down his original impression of Rodgers with host Peter Schrager and fellow NFL head coaches Sean McVay and Robert Saleh — both friends of LaFleur.
While LaFleur was deeply complimentary of his star quarterback and declared “there’s nothing he can’t do on the field,” he also hilariously recalled a tense interaction between him and Rodgers from the 2020 season that spawned from a bad coaching decision in Week 2 against the Detroit Lions and taught the young head coach to place more trust in his top player.
Here’s what LaFleur said on the Flying Coach podcast on May 26:
There was a clip earlier this year versus Detroit and I’m always watching the shot clock and I’m watching it go down, and I think we had a motion on a play and they’re in an all-out pressure look, and I’m looking at the clock and it’s at five seconds. And he’s still talking to the tight end, and the amount of things that he got done in five seconds was mindblowing. Well, I didn’t think he was going to get it done. I popped the timeout before he could get the ball off. Of course, he got everything done, he got the ball snapped and it was a premier look that was going to be a little dump-off to our tight end who was gonna be wide open. I’ll never forget, he ripped my ass, man. He had it under control.
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LaFleur’s Mistake Didn’t Cost Packers
LaFleur is able to look back and laugh at the interaction with Rodgers now, but it might not have been such a “ha-ha” story if the outcome had shifted the game out of the Packers’ hands.
The timeout in question came late during the third quarter of the Packers’ first win over the Lions last season. The Packers were facing third-and-10 from the Detroit 17-yard line, having marched all the way downfield from their own 14-yard line and looking to extend their 31-14 lead over their divisional rival. LaFleur was right about one thing: the play his timeout interrupted would have been a major success for the Packers, as Rodgers had an easy target for the first down.
Instead, LaFleur called a timeout and immediately drew the ire of his quarterback, a moment that was captured on the televised broadcast with a not-so-subtle F-bomb from Rodgers.
Rodgers ended up throwing an incompletion to Aaron Jones on the next play, forcing the Packers to settle for a 35-yard field goal from Mason Crosby that pushed them ahead 34-14. The Lions then responded over the next four minutes with a touchdown drive of their own, but the Packers refused to bend and scored eight (with a two-point conversion run from Jones) on the next drive, pulling ahead for a final margin of 42-21.
LaFleur Remains Vague About Rodgers’ Return
With voluntary organized team activities (OTAs) in full swing, LaFleur has begun an important part of the evaluation process for the 2021 season. Returning players get a chance to show off how much work they have put in during the earlier parts of the offseason, while new and rookie players are auditioning for the first time on the field in front of the coaching staff.
One person who may not factor into those evaluations, though, is Rodgers.
Rodgers has not participated in the Packers’ offseason program up to this point, avoiding both the virtual/classroom work and the voluntary OTAs that began last week. The Packers are also unsure about whether he will show up for the team’s mandatory three-day minicamp that starts next Tuesday, as LaFleur recently reinforced.
“I don’t know,” LaFleur said Wednesday when asked about it. “We’ll see come Tuesday.”
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