Matt LaFleur has done some impressive things during his six years as the Green Bay Packers’ head coach.
He’s won 67 of his 100 regular season games (.670). He’s led the Packers to three NFC North titles in six years, albeit none since 2021. And he’s guided Green Bay to a pair of NFC Championship Games, losses in both 2019 and 2020.
Here’s a sobering statistic, though, for Packer Nation.
There have been 35 head coaches that won a Super Bowl since the big game debuted on Jan. 15, 1967. Just four of those coaches won Super Bowls after their seventh season with that organization.
In essence, if you don’t win big early, odds are you probably never will.
Interestingly, when the 2025 campaign kicks off in September, LaFleur will be starting his seventh season in Green Bay.
Tick, tick, tick …
“We’ve got a bunch of talented guys in that locker room,” Green Bay general manager Brian Gutekunst said at the end of the season. “And I think it’s time we started competing for championships.
“I think they’re ready. I think they are wired right. I think that group is the kind of guys that can do that. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to go do it.”
That was about as close as Gutekunst has ever come to cranking up the heat on LaFleur. Truth is, though, it’s time for LaFleur to deliver big.
Seven years is a lifetime for NFL coaches to try winning at the highest level. And the majority that don’t get it done in that time frame never do.
The exceptions are:
• John Madden, who won his lone Super Bowl in his eighth season with the Oakland Raiders. Oakland finished first in the AFC West in six of Madden’s first seven seasons and lost five conference championship games before breaking through and defeating Minnesota, 32-14, in Super Bowl XI.
• Hank Stram, who won a Super Bowl in his 10th season with Kansas City. Stram did guide the Chiefs to a loss against Green Bay in Super Bowl I, then Kansas City defeated Minnesota, 23-7, in Super Bowl IV.
• Tom Landry, who didn’t win a Super Bowl until his 12th year in Dallas. Amazingly, Landry didn’t have a winning season until Year 7, which was also the first time he took the Cowboys to the playoffs.
Dallas lost to Baltimore in Super Bowl V — Landry’s 11th year — then came back the next season and defeated Miami, 24-3, in Super Bowl XI. Landry wound up coaching an NFL record 29 consecutive years with one team, and went 2-3 overall in the Super Bowl.
• Bill Cowher, who was with Pittsburgh 14 years before winning a Super Bowl. Cowher did lead the Steelers to five conference title games and a trip to the Super Bowl in his fourth season, before Pittsburgh broke through and defeated Seattle, 21-10, in Super Bowl XL.
The other 31 Super Bowl winning coaches have all won championships within their first seven years with that organization. Here’s when each of those men won titles:
Year 1 (4 coaches): Don McCafferty, Baltimore; George Seifert, San Francisco; Jon Gruden, Tampa Bay; Gary Kubiak, Denver.
Year 2 (8): Tom Flores, Oakland; Joe Gibbs, Washington; Barry Switzer, Dallas; Brian Billick, Baltimore; Bill Belichick, New England; Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh; Doug Pederson, Philadelphia; Bruce Arians, Tampa Bay.
Year 3 (5): Vince Lombardi, Green Bay (won 1961 NFL Championship in pre-Super Bowl era); Don Shula, Miami; Bill Walsh, San Francisco; Mike Shanahan, Denver; Dick Vermeil, St. Louis.
Year 4 (6): Mike Ditka, Chicago; Bill Parcells, New York Giants; Jimmy Johnson, Dallas; Tom Coughlin, New York Giants; Sean Payton, New Orleans; Pete Carroll, Seattle.
Year 5 (5): Mike Holmgren, Green Bay; Tony Dungy, Indianapolis; Mike McCarthy, Green Bay; John Harbaugh, Baltimore; Sean McVay, Los Angeles Rams.
Year 6 (2): Weeb Ewbank, New York Jets; Chuck Noll, Pittsburgh.
Year 7 (1): Andy Reid, Kansas City.
Interestingly, more coaches won a Super Bowl in their second season than any other year. And right now, that remains LaFleur’s best chance to have captured a title.
Green Bay went 13-3 in the 2020 campaign and was the No. 1 seed in the NFC that year. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers had the best season of his career, throwing 48 touchdown passes, five interceptions and winning his third MVP award.
The Packers hosted Tampa Bay for the conference title and were 4-point favorites, but lost on their homefield, 31-26.
Green Bay trailed, 31-23, with 2:09 remaining and had a fourth-and-goal from Tampa Bay’s 8-yard line. Instead of trying to tie the game with a touchdown and a 2-point conversion, LaFleur chose to have Mason Crosby kick a 26-yard field goal that pulled the Packers within five.
If LaFleur retired today, that would be his signature moment of his time in Green Bay — and it’s not a pretty one.
“I remember walking off the field, looking at the clock going, what the …” Rodgers said in the recent Netflix documentary ‘Enigma.’ “What are we doing? Kicking a field goal? For what? We still gotta get a touchdown.”
Green Bay never got the ball back. And two weeks later, Tampa Bay routed Kansas City, 31-9, in the 55th Super Bowl.
In the four years since, LaFleur is just 1-3 in the postseason. Green Bay has plummeted in its own division, going 1-5 against NFC North teams this season.
And while the Packers went 11-6 overall in 2024, LaFleur had arguably his worst coaching season, struggling with clock management, challenge flags and his own emotions.
“I think Matt LaFleur, I would really love to see him level out and be more even keeled during a game, and be selective with his outbursts, rather than every time the camera pans over, it looks like somebody stole his dog,” former Packer standout Mark Tauscher, who now hosts a daily radio show in Wisconsin, said late in the season.
NFL years are like dog years, meaning you don’t get many in a league where coaches are hired to be fired.
When the 2025 season begins, LaFleur will be tied with Cincinnati’s Zac Taylor as the seventh-longest tenured coach in football. Of those tied with or ahead of LaFleur in longevity, four have won Super Bowls — Reid, Tomlin, Harbaugh and McVay. And two others — San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan and Taylor — have been to Super Bowls, but lost.
The only coach that’s lasted longer than LaFleur without at least reaching a Super Bowl is Buffalo’s Sean McDermott, who will be starting Year 9 next fall.
LaFleur doesn’t appear to be on the hot seat — yet. But history shows if LaFleur can’t win big next season, it’s unlikely he ever will.
That’s why 2025 could be a “win big or go home” season for LaFleur and the Packers.
