Green Bay Packers appear to select Matt LaFleur as next head coach

It’s been a week since Black Monday, and it appears the first of eight head coaching positions has finally been filled. The Green Bay Packers are reportedly zeroing in on Titans offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur as their next head coach, so much so that they’ve begun to tell other candidates that the team has made their choice, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter:

LaFleur was a bit of an under-the-radar selection for the Packers, who appeared to be front-runners to grab Dolphins former head coach Adam Gase or even Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, both of whom interviewed with the team last week.

But the Titans offensive coordinator is an interesting choice. He has certainly surrounded himself with some well-respected offensive minds in his past. In 2015, he joined Kyle Shanahan as Washington’s quarterbacks coach. A couple years later, he was offensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams for a year under Sean McVay. And this most recent season he played under Mike Vrabel as the offensive coordinator of the Titans.

The Packers were very clearly looking to upgrade their offense scheme, seeing as 2018 was an extremely disappointing year for Green Bay. With Aaron Rodgers and a decent running game, the Packers scored just 23.5 points per game—t-14th most in the league.

But don’t be so sure the Packers will immediately turn their offense around in 2019. The Titans scored just 19.4 points per game in 2018 under LaFleur, although obviously the personnel in Tennessee isn’t quite as impressive.

Of course, if the Packers do indeed go with LaFleur, it means Adam Gase will still be on the market. Early reports suggested he would be the favorite to land the offensive coordinator job with the Lions, but there has since been a lot of speculation that Gase will land a head coaching job, instead. Stay tuned.