Matt LaFleur’s Loyalty To Joe Barry Could Eventually Cost The Green Bay Packers’ Coach His Own Job

Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur made the controversial decision to retain defensive … [+] coordinator Joe Barry this season.

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By all accounts, Matt LaFleur is an awfully nice guy.

He cheers as loud as anyone at Lambeau Field when his Green Bay Packers succeed.

He’s not afraid to shed a tear — or a bucket full — when things go amiss.

There’s not a lot of Mike Ditka or Bill Cowher in the modern-day LaFleur. In many ways, the swell LaFleur seems more like a pal than he does a coach or a boss.

And that could leave LaFleur squarely on the hot seat when the 2024 campaign begins.

LaFleur made the controversial — some would say foolish — choice of bringing back his friend, Joe Barry, for a third season as Green Bay’s defensive coordinator. That move has gone as smoothly as Clark Griswold’s Christmas lights project.

The Packers have a first-year starter at quarterback and one of the youngest groups of pass catchers in NFL history. Amazingly, though, the offense hasn’t been the problem most of the season.

Instead, for the umpteenth straight season, Green Bay’s defense has flopped. In the last two weeks alone, the defense’s implosions have dropped the Packers from the seventh and final playoff spot to No. 11 in the NFC and out of the postseason.

Many were surprised Barry wasn’t sent packing after Green Bay’s 34-20 loss to Tampa Bay Sunday when the defense was as dysfunctional as the Kardashian family.

LaFleur’s greatest sin, though, isn’t keeping Barry around for the final three games of 2023. No, his biggest offense was opting to stay married to Barry for any part of the 2023 campaign.

That decision could eventually cost the NFL’s youngest team the valuable experience of playing in the postseason. And if that happens, LaFleur should be on shaky ground himself when next season arrives.

“I do believe in the people, not only in the locker room, but our coaching staff,” LaFleur said at the end of the 2022 season. “Are there a lot of things that we’ve got to improve upon? Absolutely. No doubt about it. But it’s my intention to try and have everybody back, and I think continuity is a big part of having success in this league.”

Continuity can lead to success — if you have the right people in place to begin with.

But LaFleur’s decision to put Barry in charge of his defense was curious from the start.

Barry had two other chances to coordinate a defense, but flopped in both Detroit (2007-‘08) and Washington (2015-‘16).

Detroit ranked dead last in yards and points in both of Barry’s seasons running the Lions’ defense. Granted, Barry was dealt a dreadful hand by overmatched general manager Matt Millen. But Barry’s units in Detroit were so awful, they gave up 5.0 points more per game than any team in football in 2008.

Barry was given a second chance when Washington tabbed him to run its defense in 2015. In both of Barry’s seasons, though, Washington ranked 28th in yards and in the bottom half of points allowed.

Barry and LaFleur became fast friends when the two spent the 2017 season working under Sean McVay with the Los Angeles Rams. And when LaFleur opted to dump Mike Pettine after the 2020 campaign, he turned to his old pal Barry.

“I’m really proud of my scars. I really am,” Barry said after being hired in Green Bay. “I think in life, you’re hardened by tough experiences.

“Now don’t get me wrong, I think you can learn a lot from having success and being in a good place. But I think when true growth takes place, I think it’s when things are really, really hard. I learned from it, I got better. I grew.”

Perhaps.

The numbers certainly don’t bear that out, though.

Green Bay ranked ninth in total yards during Mike Pettine’s final season as defensive coordinator in 2020. The Packers’ average rank under Barry is 16th.

Green Bay’s eight first round draft picks on the defensive side of the ball are the most in NFL history. The way the Packers have performed, though, those players were either over-drafted or poorly coached.

And general manager Brian Gutekunst certainly isn’t going to admit to the former.

The Packers rank 23rd in yards allowed per game — their worst showing since 2013 — and 17th in points allowed (21.5). Green Bay also ranks 24th in yards allowed per play and 23rd on third downs.

“Some weeks it’s been there, some weeks it hasn’t,” Barry said. “Some periods of games it’s been there, then a period of the game it doesn’t. That is ultimately in the chair that I sit in, that’s the ultimate frustration, is that it’s not.

“Because I think any coach, the thing that he’s always striving for, and I talk to you guys about this all the time, is that word, is consistency. To consistently get that play at the level that you want.”

Barry’s soft, zone coverages and inability to fix a rushing defense that’s allowed four different teams to pile up 200-plus yards are troubling enough. What’s been even more galling are the communication breakdowns.

LaFleur said this week Green Bay’s issues against Tampa Bay happened pre-snap more than post-snap. For that to occur in training camp is understandable. For it to happen in late-December should be a fireable offense.

“We have self-inflicted communication errors and guys quite frankly not in the right spot,” LaFleur said. “That’s tough to watch and it happened.

“When you’re having basic communication problems and you’re supposed to be in a certain coverage or a certain rotation and we’re not getting that communication, that’s what’s so disappointing to me is the fact that it was poor communication.”

LaFleur rolled the dice that Barry could improve a defense that ranked 17th in both points allowed and yards allowed in 2022 and gave his buddy a third year. That decision has gone up in flames and could cost Green Bay a playoff spot.

And if these Packers do indeed miss the postseason, LaFleur’s seat heading to 2024 should be one of the warmer ones in the NFL.

LaFleur went a stellar 39-10 during his first three seasons in Green Bay (2019-2021). But LaFleur also went just 2-3 in the postseason, 0-2 in NFC Championship Games, and the Packers wasted the NFC’s No. 1 seed in both 2020 and 2021.

In addition, LaFleur’s late-game decision to kick a field goal in an eventual 31-26 loss to Tampa Bay in the 2020 NFC title game ranks as one of the poorest coaching decisions in franchise history. And LaFleur is also just 14-19 in his last 33 games (.424).

The Packers have not missed the postseason three straight years since they suffered a 10-year drought from 1983-92. That’s what LaFleur and the 2024 Packers could be staring at next September if things don’t dramatically reverse course the next three games.

When the season ends, LaFleur will undoubtedly hand Barry a pink slip — something that should have been done 12 months earlier. LaFleur will then begin searching for the third defensive coordinator of his tenure.

If LaFleur can’t get it right this time, he could be next on the chopping block.