With longtime quarterbacks coach Tom Clements retiring, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said Jordan Love’s next step is “to evolve as a vocal leader.”
With longtime quarterbacks coach Tom Clements retiring, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said Jordan Love’s next step is “to evolve as a vocal leader.”
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Jordan Love will have to take the next step in his career as the Green Bay Packers‘ quarterback without his revered position coach, Tom Clements.
On the day when the Packers announced that Clements, 71, is retiring, head coach Matt LaFleur said the next part in Love’s evolution as a quarterback is to assume a more vocal leadership role within the team.
“I think the next step is just to continue to evolve as a vocal leader,” LaFleur said of Love during Tuesday’s season wrap-up news conference.
Clements will go down as the only person to coach Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers and Love.
This is actually Clements’ second or third retirement, depending on how he views it. He initially came to Green Bay as Mike McCarthy’s quarterbacks coach in 2006 and left after the 2016 season. Clements was out of coaching for two years until the Arizona Cardinals hired him to work with Tyler Murray, who became Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2019.
Clements also coached for the Saints, Chiefs, Steelers and Bills.
Clements told ESPN in 2023 that if he was retired after his first stint in Green Bay, then he was “retired, retired” after the 2020 season in Arizona. That was until Rodgers convinced him to come back to Green Bay in 2022 after Luke Getsy left to become the Chicago Bears‘ offensive coordinator.
“Man, it’s been a cool ride with him for the last three years,” LaFleur said of Clements, a longtime star quarterback in the Canadian Football League following his college career at Notre Dame.
“Talk about Favre, Rodgers and then the development of Jordan Love. I mean, that’s pretty cool. I know he’s meant a lot to this organization — his contributions — and he will definitely be missed. I can’t say enough great things about him. I really appreciate him.”
The Packers have several in-house candidates to replace Clements, including assistant quarterbacks coach Connor Lewis and former NFL quarterback Sean Mannion, who joined the Packers’ staff this past season as an offensive assistant. Getsy also spent the last portion of this season with the Packers as a consultant after he was fired as the Raiders‘ offensive coordinator.
Whoever coaches Love next season will be tasked, in part, with helping him take the next step in his career as a starter. LaFleur called Love “an ascending player that is going to get better and better and better” and believes his leadership role will continue to grow.
“I think that just kind of comes with the position naturally,” LaFleur said. “I think he’s taken steps to get there, but I think he can really demand a lot because the locker room respects him. And they respect him not only as a person but by the work he puts in. He’s a grinder. He’s one of the guys; I think that’s one of his best qualities, is he is one of the guys.
“They all respect him, but I think, when things aren’t quite right, I think he can voice that as well. When guys aren’t quite doing what they’re supposed to be doing, and he’s one of the guys to talk to [them] about that. I just think it means more when it comes from your quarterback than it does from me or one of our other coaches.”
After a strong finish to his first season as a starter in 2023 that resulted in a four-year, $220 million contract extension, Love missed two games because of a knee injury early in the season and also dealt with a groin injury at midseason. He threw 25 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in the regular season, but he went the last seven regular-season games without an interception until he had three of them in the playoff loss to the Eagles on Sunday.
The Packers finished an 11-win season on a three-game losing streak, including the playoffs, during which the offense sputtered.
“Do I think he can play better? Absolutely,” LaFleur said. “Do I think I can help him out and be better? Absolutely. Do I think we can play better around him? Absolutely.
“I just think it’s too much to put it on one person. I really do. I think collectively, we have to be better, and I expect better. We performed at a pretty high level a majority of the season and then took a dive. That’s why it feels, I’d say, different than a year ago.”
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