I have always felt that it is rather difficult to truly judge a coach. As fans, we really only see a small portion of their job. We do not see the long hours in the facility, the management of people during practices, the planning, the politics, the bureaucracy. Sometimes you get an obvious case like Urban Meyer or Nathaniel Hackett, these guys are so clearly over their heads (Hackett) or have the wrong mentality (Meyer). But for the most part, we can really only judge coaches for their game-day decision-making and public-facing actions.
The worth of a coach can also be hidden by quality roster and it can be difficult to separate the success of the two from each other. Nick Sirianni is the current prime example. A lot of people, myself included, do not have a terribly high opinion of Sirianni as a coach. He’s made some stupid hires, he frequently makes questionable game-day decisions. He’s an unlikable turd. But his tenure has seen the Eagles reach pretty much the pinnacle of their success as a franchise. He has to be responsible for some of that, even if much of the credit is given to Roseman and the players. Is Sirianni a bad coach? I dunno. Is the cat in the box dead? Maybe the only way is to set them both free.
I do not think Matt LaFleur is a bad coach, but I think his tenure in Green Bay maybe should have ended last year. I think one of the prime indicators that a coach is simply done for a team, be they a good coach or not, is when choking becomes a trend. Harbaugh racked up a lot of double-digit 4th-quarter chokes. Tomlin couldn’t get a team past the wildcard. The 4th quarter chokes are what finally killed Brian Daboll. This was the logic behind the firing of Sean McDermott, a move that I still disagree with but understand where the frustration and logic came from. A trend of choking feels like a failure of coaching. A failure to maintain a game and morale. Chokes happen. They should not happen with such regularity. That feels like a locker room problem. The Packers have been a frightening failure since Micah Parsons was hurt last season. They choked against the Bears. They choked against Denver. They flopped against the Ravens. They choked against the Vikings. They choked again against the Bears in the wildcard, and in Week 1, with a fresh slate, facing a Vikings team that lost their QB in the first quarter, they choked their biggest choke yet.
LaFleur inherited a prime Rodgers and a quality roster and could never make it to the top. He seems remarkably capable of scheming, but his gameday decision-making is cowardly when it should be risky and risky when it should be safe. I laughed at Packers fans who wanted LaFleur gone last year, but I see their vision now. LaFleur appears to have reached his ceiling. Maybe what he needs is a change of scenery.
