Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur is typically pretty buttoned up with his public remarks, but he made waves this preseason when he said Jordan Love is a better pre-snap quarterback than four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers.
LaFleur knew then that Rodgers, who won the final two of his four league MVPs under LaFleur (2020 and 2021), would get mad about his remarks, and the Packers head coach was right. This week, Rodgers called LaFleur a clown for that comment, saying his ex-head coach probably said that because he changed too many of LaFleur's play calls at the line of scrimmage.
"He's probably still mad I changed too many of his plays," Rodgers said, laughing on Wilde and Tausch on ESPN Wisconsin. "Big statement when you had a guy win back-to-back MVPs. Guess I wasn't doing too much at the LOS [line of scrimmage]. Matt is a clown, man. He says some things from time to time that are funny, and then he [goes] 'oh, maybe I shouldn't have said that!' He's backing up his quarterback. I'm sure J-Love is real good at the line of scrimmage, but c'mon man."
Rodgers has every right to be mad after leaving the Packers as their all-time leader in passing touchdowns with 475 while winning four NFL MVPs and a Super Bowl title as Super Bowl XLV MVP. Rodgers also became the NFL's all-time leader in passer rating and touchdown-to-interception ratio during his time with the Packers.
When Rodgers won consecutive MVPs to kick off the 2020s, he did so in LaFleur's Shanahan-tree offense, which featured staples such as under-center formations, zone blocking and heavy doses of play-action passing and motion. LaFleur's offense is the polar opposite of the Packers' predecessor Mike McCarthy's West Coast offense, which Rodgers grew up in and spent 13 seasons mastering. Rodgers' affinity for McCarthy's offense is one reason he said he decided to suit up for the Pittsburgh Steelers again in 2026. The Packers lined up in shotgun formation 52.8% of the time from 2006-2018, the third-highest rate in the NFL.
Rodgers, one of the all-time greats at pre-snap audibles and quickly identifying mismatches on his own, has often called the West Coast offense "the most beautiful offense in football." He appreciates its simplicity, with the quarterback going from one route progression to another and much more of the decision-making resting on the quarterback's shoulders instead of his coaches'.
LaFleur's Shanahan-rooted scheme is designed to simplify a quarterback's job in a different way. Similar formations help the passer diagnose the defense more easily, with the run and pass looking the same while the offense relies on motion and similar under-center looks before the snap. It took Rodgers a year to acclimate to LaFleur's scheme in 2019, throwing for 26 touchdowns and four interceptions while totaling just over 4,000 passing yards in Year 1.
Rodgers took off with LaFleur across the 2020 and 2021 seasons, taking home those back-to-back MVPs with Green Bay going 26-6 in his starts. The 26 wins tied the Kansas City Chiefs, with Patrick Mahomes starting at quarterback, for the most in the NFL during those two seasons. Rodgers also led the league in passing touchdowns (85), touchdown-to-interception ratio (85-9) and passer rating (116.7) across the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
When Rodgers rediscovered another MVP-level peak, the Packers played more of LaFleur's brand of football, lining up under center 40.5% of the time, the 10th-highest rate in the NFL. Looking more like LaFleur's offense — with the head coach calling the plays and Rodgers mostly running them as called — led to a much more high-powered, efficient offense.
Packers offensive ranking under LaFleur with Rodgers
| 2019 | 2020-2021* | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|
PPG | 23.5 (15th) | 29.1 (3rd) | 21.8 (14th) |
Total YPG | 345.5 (18th) | 376.9 (8th) | 337.9 (17th) |
Red Zone TD percentage | 64% (8th) | 68.5% (3rd) | 51.9% (24th) |
Under-center rate | 39.1% (13th) | 40.5% (10th) | 31.1% (22nd) |
Play-action rate | 16.4% (12th) | 16.5% (15th) | 15.2% (17th) |
| Motion rate | 41.9% (12th) | 51.3% (7th) | 56.7% (8th) |
* Aaron Rodgers won back-to-back NFL MVPs
Rodgers and the Packers ran into trouble when they strayed from the offense's foundational staples of going under center and utilizing play-action. When Green Bay had both the lowest under-center (31.1%) and play-action (15.2%) rates of LaFleur's first four seasons in Green Bay in 2022, they went 8-9 and missed the playoffs for the first time under the head coach. It was a whiplash juxtaposition to the Packers' three consecutive 13-win seasons from 2019 to 2021, the only such streak in NFL history.
Rodgers also posted the worst single-season passer rating of his Packers career in 2022, at 91.1, after he and the team shifted toward the way he preferred to play: more shotgun and more route progressions based on his ability to read the field.
It looks like all parties involved are now happy where things sit, with Love looking to build upon his most efficient season as a starter in 2025 entering the 2026 season, while Rodgers gets to play the football he enjoys the most with McCarthy in his Pittsburgh swan song.
| Jordan Love 2025 season (NFL ranks) | NFL QB rank | |
|---|---|---|
Yards per pass attempt | 7.7 | 8th |
TD-INT | 23-6 | 6th |
Passer rating | 101.2 | 6th |
Expected points added (EPA) per dropback | 0.22 | 2nd |
"He's got to be the best I've been around in terms of protections and adjustments," LaFleur said of Love on NFL Network on Aug 10. "Rarely does he get out-schemed. It's pretty remarkable. That was all foreign to him coming into the league. Having the opportunity to sit back and learn from Aaron [Rodgers], watch him do it at the level he did, was invaluable for him."
