Matt LaFleur is in his eighth season on the Green Bay Packers sideline, piling up a 77-42-1 regular-season record since taking over in 2019. But one ugly game can erase a lot of it. After the Packers were humbled by the Atlanta Falcons in a 35-14 loss, the grumbling around turned into louder calls for change.
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Among the most pointed voices is former Packers quarterback Kurt Benkert, who has never been shy about saying what he sees.
“Brian Flores should be the Packers’ next head coach,” Benkert posted on X.
Green Bay’s home opener was supposed to be a get-right night against a winless Falcons team that had managed just 16 points in its first two games. It turned into something else entirely.
The Packers did strike first, with Jordan Love hitting Christian Watson on a 4-yard touchdown pass. After that, the offense simply stopped functioning. By halftime, Atlanta led 17-7, and the Lambeau Field crowd let the team hear about it on the way to the locker room.
The third quarter only made things worse, with the Falcons stretching the lead to 24-7, and that’s the reason why Benkert wants Flores to join as HC.
Benkert also has a bit of history with the franchise, so this isn’t just a random fan chiming in. Green Bay signed him in 2021, and he spent most of that year on the practice squad behind Aaron Rodgers and Love. He got into one regular-season game before the Packers let him go in June 2022.
He didn’t say why he landed on Flores, but Packers fans don’t need to think back very far to guess. Just eleven days earlier, Flores’ Vikings defense had taken a 22-10 Green Bay lead and flipped it into a 39-22 Minnesota win.
That game was a showcase for the kind of defense Flores is known for. According to NFL.com’s Nick Shook, Minnesota blitzed on 78.3% of Love’s dropbacks and got pressure on half of them. A strip-sack and an interception on back-to-back fourth-quarter drives led to two touchdowns, and Green Bay ended up giving up 29 straight points.
Flores, a former Dolphins head coach now in his fourth year as Vikings defensive coordinator, has made aggressive blitzing his trademark. His unit has given up 19.2 points a game across his first three seasons in the job, the second-lowest mark in the league.
As for Matt LaFleur, his job doesn’t appear to be in any immediate danger. The Packers announced a multi-year extension for him in January, along with general manager Brian Gutekunst and executive vice president Russ Ball. Green Bay has made the playoffs in six of LaFleur’s seven full seasons, though it hasn’t been back to the NFC Championship Game since 2020.
The Packers came in at 1-1 after beating the Jets in overtime, but the line problems and late collapse against Minnesota were still on people’s minds.
Benkert’s post just added to the frustration already filling Lambeau while a winless Falcons team took control.