Mike Pettine's relationship with his team's new head coach was barely in its infancy when the Green Bay Packers introduced him in January.
But after spending some time getting to know Matt LaFleur, the Packers' defensive coordinator said it was an “easy decision” to stay in Green Bay going forward.
“I talked to him before he got hired, and I got the sense there was a lot of common ground,” Pettine said of LaFleur on Monday, per Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com.
Pettine was hired last season to be the team's defensive coordinator under longtime head coach Mike McCarthy. But McCarthy was fired on December 2nd in the wake of an embarrassing loss to the Arizona Cardinals at Lambeau Field, potentially putting Pettine's future with the green and gold also in doubt.
After LaFleur was hired last month, though, the 52-year-old was able to glean a strong sense of what the Packers' new head coach would bring to the table due to the pair sharing many mutual ties in the coaching world.
“Matt and I are one degree of separation with like 20 people,” Pettine said, per Ryan Wood of the Green Bay Press-Gazzette. “So the information was coming to me.”
Green Bay missed the playoffs for the second consecutive season in 2018 after going 6-9-1 despite typically strong play from superstar quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Though McCarthy bore the brunt of criticism for his team's performance, it was defense that did the Packers in more than anything else.
Green Bay finished 25th in points allowed last season, and created just 15 turnovers, third-fewest in the NFL.
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