You don’t always see an NFL coach come to a game for the conference title during EVERY one of the first two seasons at work, but that’s exactly what Packers coach Matt LaFleur accomplished in Green Bay.
After leading the Packers to the 2019 NFC title game during his first year as head coach, LaFleur has them back in the NFC Championship for the second year in a row after Green Bay’s 32-18 victory over the Rams on Saturday . The win means that LaFleur is now only the second coach in the past 25 years to reach a conference title game in each of his first two seasons. LaFleur is also now just one of six coaches who accomplished the feat in the Super Bowl era.
The last coach to make it this far in the first two seasons was Jim Harbaugh, who did this in 2011 and 2012 with the San Francisco 49ers. After being hired in 2011, Harbaugh led the team to three consecutive NFC title games and a Super Bowl.
Here is a complete list of coaches who made it to the conference title game during their first two years in office:
- John Madden, Raiders (1969-70)
- Don McCafferty, Colts (1970-71)
- George Seifert, 49ers (1989-90)
- Barry Switzer, Cowboys (1994-95)
- Jim Harbaugh, 49ers (2011-12)
The good news for Packers fans is that four of those five coaches ended up making it to the Super Bowl and three of those five coaches ended up winning it all. Madden was the only one who failed to make it to the big game during the first two years in office, but he more than made up for it by winning Super Bowl XI in 1976.
Of the four who made it to the Super Bowl, Harbaugh is the only winner who hasn’t won everything. McCafferty (Super Bowl V), Seifert (Super Bowl XXIV) and Switzer (Super Bowl XXX) won a Lombardi Trophy during their first two years as head coach.
If you’ve never heard of McCafferty, it’s probably because he was fired just two years after winning the Super Bowl. When the Eagles fired Doug Pederson last week, it was the first time a coach has been fired after winning a Super Bowl since McCafferty was fired in 1972, just two years after winning everything in Baltimore. The coach was dismissed because he refused to put Johnny Unitas on the bench.
As for LaFleur, there are not many coaches in NFL history who have been better than him in the first two years. He not only led the Packers to two games for the NFC title, but also compiled a record for the regular season of 26-6, which is the second best of any coach in the first two seasons, behind only Seifert, who started his career 28 – 4