Over the previous offseason, there were eight teams who made a coaching change. Of those eight teams, the only first-year head coach that is thriving is Matt LaFleur of the Green Bay Packers.
Heading into Week 12, LaFleur is the only first-year head coach that has a winning record. The Packers go into Sunday's game versus the San Francisco 49ers with an impressive 8-2 record.
The other first-year head coaches include Freddie Kitchens, Kliff Kingsbury, Bruce Arians, Vic Fangio, Adam Gase, Brian Flores, and Zac Taylor. All of those coaches have a combined record of 14-52-1. Unlike LaFleur, these coaches took over teams that haven't had success in recent memory.
However, that doesn't mitigate what LaFleur has been able to do in Green Bay. The overlying issue with the previous regime of Mike McCarthy was his inability to adjust his schemes to today's NFL.
In a short amount of time, LaFleur has turned the Packers into a run-oriented offense to go along with Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers only has one game this season that he has had to throw the ball more than 40 times.
With the balanced offense and a revamped defense, the Packers are back to being at the top of the NFC North. Last year, the three first-year head coaches were Matt Nagy, Mike Vrabel, and Frank Reich.
All three of them had winning records while Nagy and Reich made the playoffs in their first seasons at the helm. As of this moment, LaFleur could be the only new head coach that is on the right side of .500 when the season concludes.
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