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Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur made a major decision amid rumors he could be on the hot seat
Following the Green Bay Packers’ 10-7 Week 10 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on “Monday Night Football,” head coach Matt LaFleur was immediately bombarded with questions about his job security.
Though he has a 72-36-1 record in six-and-a-half seasons with the Packers, LaFleur has come under fire in recent years for his third-, second-, and third-place finishes in the NFC North, respectively, the last three seasons.
Some might say it’s a bit premature to put LaFleur on the hot seat, but others like The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman, believe the 46-year-old could be coaching for his job the rest of the season.
“I’ll leave that for everybody else to decide,” LaFleur said about whether he thinks his job is at risk. “I’ll just focus on the day-to-day. … I feel like you’re always coaching for everything in this league, you know? … That’s just my mindset and that will be my mindset ’til they tell me not to coach anymore.”
While the calls for LaFleur’s job will likely only get louder with each Packers loss, some feel he could have quelled some of those unruly fans wanting him ousted if he had done one simple thing: relinquish his offensive play-calling duties.
However, as LaFleur informed reporters during Wednesday’s media availability, that’s not something he’s willing to do at this moment.
“With a chuckle, Matt LaFleur says he isn’t giving up play calling,” Schneidman tweeted.
With a chuckle, Matt LaFleur says he isn’t giving up play calling.
While the Packers are playing championship-caliber defense through 10 games, the same can’t be said of the offense.
Green Bay ranks 12th in yards per game (349.3), 15th in points per game (23.7), and it has the 20th-ranked rushing offense. The Packers also have the sixth-worst average yards per rush (3.9).
Those numbers, while not terrible, don’t exactly paint the picture of an offense poised to make a deep playoff run.
LaFleur admitted that he knows changes have to be made.
“I think that, especially as the play-caller, you’re trying to put people in the best position possible to go out there and have success,” LaFleur added, via ESPN. “And when we’re not having collective success … you have to challenge yourself to do better, to find something else in order to go out there and move the ball and score points.”
GettyGreen Bay Packers QB Jordan Love recently stated he has full confidence in head coach Matt LaFleur despite the team’s offensive struggles
Offensive struggles are something new for the Packers under LaFleur.
In his previous six season, Green Bay had a top-11 offense four times, including having the fifth-best offense last season.
That track record is likely why star quarterback Jordan Love hasn’t lost faith in his head coach. After Monday’s loss, Love stood up for his head coach, stating no one should be counting LaFleur out just yet.
“I’ve got a lot of trust in Matt,” Love said. “That’s something that’s not wavering at all. I’ve been with Matt since I got here. I know exactly what he’s capable of, what the whole staff is capable of; that’s not wavering. It comes back to all of us — players, coaches, everybody — finding ways to improve and get better.”
(Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – FEBRUARY 28: Marshawn Kneeland #DL41 of the Western Michigan Broncos speaks to the media during the 2024 NFL Draft Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium on February 28, 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
It’s not even been a week since the tragic apparent suicide of Cowboys end Marshawn Kneeland, and still, the news is raw for most around the organization. It’s even more painful, of course, for those who were closest to Kneeland, especially his longtime girlfriend, Catalina Marcena, who has been his partner since Kneeland was a collegiate player at Western Michigan.
It was Marcena who alerted police back on November 5 that Kneeland was armed and could be a danger to himself, warning of his history of mental illness. In the days since, Marcena has remained out of the spotlight, but she did finally speak this week, at first telling the Daily Mail, “It’s too much.”
She went on: “I’m grieving hard right now. It will be a long time before I’ll feel ready to talk at any length. We’re still in the early stages of everything. We are working on the funeral arrangements. I don’t know where it’s going to be yet.”
Marcena, who founded a clothing line called, SZN Stitches, posted to Facebook this week, writing, “my sweet baby, words could never express how broken I feel, you’re my everything. I’ll love you forever my beautiful angel.”
Kneeland was just 24 when he died. Marcena is 22.
FacebookCowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland and girlfriend Catalina Marcena, from her Facebook post.
Kneeland’s death came 20 months after the death of his mother, Wendy.
Back on February 18, 2024, just days before the start of the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, where Kneeland would solidify his professional future after his career at Western Michigan, Wendy, died suddenly of an undisclosed illness. Kneeland headed into the Combine with a heavy heart, of course, but did not go public about his mother’s death.
He said at the time, “A lot of people don’t know because I really don’t talk about it too much … It was tough, it still is, but I know at the end of the day the thing that gets me through it is she spent all her life trying to get me to go here and supported me as much as she could to get me to the NFL.”
Around the NFL this week, there were moments of silence held for Kneeland as the Cowboys were idle in their bye week. The Cowboys are returning to practice, and trying to return to business as usual, as much as possible, in preparation for Monday’s game against the Raiders.
Team owner Jerry Jones first addressed Kneeland’s death publicly in a radio interview in Dallas this week, saying he was, “devastated.”
“I think we all have unfettered feelings about the people we love, people we work with, and this is just a time when you acknowledge that there’s no answers,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “It makes you want to live life to the fullest. It makes you want to look for the very best in what we have for each other. And in some way make sense out of these times in terms of what they can mean from helping those that are here on Earth right now.
“All of those things are very natural, come to mind, but his death is such a national awareness thing that it takes on some of that light when we think about how we go forward.”