GREEN BAY, Wis. — His handpicked coach has won 24 of his first 30 games. The general manager he hired just saw players from his first two draft classes selected to the Pro Bowl.
Still think Mark Murphy doesn’t know what he’s doing?
That was the thought — maybe not the prevailing one but a view shared by some — when in 2018 the Green Bay Packers‘ president overhauled the structure of the organization and decided that both the coach and general manager would report to him.
Another notion was that Murphy’s ego was getting in the way of smart football-management practices.
“In my eyes,” Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said, “it couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Perhaps Murphy hasn’t always gone about business in a conventional manner, but those who work closely with him warn not to judge him by his sometimes-awkward public appearances, such as the long-winded news conference to introduce Matt LaFleur as coach.
Either way, the results of his hiring process can’t be disputed at this point.
Since Murphy changed the structure in January 2018, the Packers have the sixth-best record in the NFL at 30-15-1, and that includes the 6-9-1 mark of 2018, when Murphy decided to make a coaching change with four games left in the season.
Their 24-6 record over the past two seasons ranks second only to the Kansas City Chiefs (25-5), and LaFleur, 41, became only the sixth coach in NFL history — and the first one in Green Bay — to win at least 24 times in his first 30 games.
“Obviously with hiring Matt,” Gutekunst said, “it’s been a home run.”
Job 1: Championships
In at least one way, Murphy found himself in a similar position to Gutekunst, LaFleur and even quarterback Aaron Rodgers when it came to their tasks with the Packers: All had to follow a beloved, legendary or highly successful predecessor.
Gutekunst followed Ted Thompson, who drafted Rodgers to replace Brett Favre. LaFleur replaced Mike McCarthy, who won a Super Bowl and has a street named after him just down the road from the stadium.
For Murphy, that was Bob Harlan, the Packers’ president from 1989 to 2008.
Harlan played a significant role in restoring the Packers to greatness after the long drought that followed the Lombardi years by hiring Ron Wolf, now a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, as general manager and allowing him to hire Mike Holmgren as coach and to trade for Favre. Combine that with Lambeau Field’s massive renovation in the early 2000s, and Harlan’s place in team history can’t be understated.
As the only NFL franchise without a majority owner, the Packers trust their team president — who is part of the seven-member executive committee (the other six of whom are not Packers employees) — to act as such.
“First and foremost, it’s [my job] to make sure the Packers are competing for championships on a regular basis and make sure that we stay in Green Bay,” Murphy told ESPN.com during a rare in-season interview. “Obviously my involvement at the league level is really important, so I think representing the Packers’ interest at the league level is a very important part of my responsibility.”
Check your ego at the Lambeau Field gate
Three main football men in Green Bay all report to Murphy: Gutekunst, LaFleur and director of football operations Russ Ball, who, among other duties, handles the Packers’ salary cap and contract negotiations.
Ball was a finalist for the GM job that went to Gutekunst, and when he was passed over, many wondered how he would continue to work for the team. Nearly three years later, he remains in place and has been credited with keeping the Packers in good cap health.
Enter LaFleur a year later after a whirlwind coaching search, and the Packers had their structure in place.
But who knew how they would work together?
“You’ve seen in other places around the National Football League, sometimes egos can get out of control,” Gutekunst said. “And I just really don’t worry about that with the people I get to work with every day being humble enough to continue to work and never think you’ve got all the answers.”
Gutekunst didn’t mention any names, but just look at two former Packers personnel men who have become GMs with other organizations to see what he means. John Dorsey lost a power struggle with the Chiefs even though he built a part of their Super Bowl-winning roster, and then got ousted in Cleveland, where much of the Browns’ roster — including quarterback Baker Mayfield — was his doing. Something similar happened with Reggie McKenzie and the Raiders.
“For me, the example of Ted Thompson and how humbly he went about his business, and Mark as well, there’s a quiet strength about both those guys as they go about it,” Gutekunst said. “It’s never been, with either one of those guys, about credit. It’s just been about the work, and I think that’s an important thing.”
While Gutekunst has worked for the Packers since 1998, LaFleur has been with five other NFL teams and has seen egos at work.
“There’s great intentions amongst everybody here and there’s a lot of trust and I think that’s what you have to have if you want to have success,” LaFleur said. “It goes from the top all the way down. From Mark to the rest of us and the majority of the people in this building, there’s a common goal. I don’t feel like there’s any agendas other than winning.”
When told how Murphy’s structure change was viewed by some as an ego move, LaFleur stopped the line of questioning immediately and said: “No, there’s zero ego there. Zero. And I can say that so confidently.”
When asked why the Gutekunst and LaFleur hires have seemingly worked out so well, Murphy offered this: “I think it’s a tribute to them.”
“The work ethic and their working relationship, they don’t have egos,” Murphy continued. “They’re great communicators and just very genuine and humble people. I think with Matt particularly, that really resonates with our players. They relate extremely well to him.”
1:50
Domonique Foxworth and Louis Riddick break down why Aaron Rodgers should be considered for league MVP in his 16th season.
In that sense, Murphy sees some of his former coach, Joe Gibbs, in LaFleur. Murphy played eight years in the NFL as a safety for Washington before he embarked on a post-playing career that included working for the NFL Players Association, as a trial lawyer in the U.S. Department of Justice, and as a college athletic director at Colgate and Northwestern.
“One of the things I vividly remember about Joe Gibbs is after practices and games, he’d stop by players’ lockers and talk to them,” Murphy said, noting that LaFleur makes a point after games to stop at every player’s locker. “Not every coach does that. I think it’s invaluable. If you call somebody into your office, they’re not as likely to really open up and talk to you about challenges and issues they’re facing as opposed to going into their office or sitting next to them or standing next to them at their locker.
“I think it’s very beneficial in terms of creating an organization where communication is open.”
Laughing all the way to the playoffs
As much as LaFleur’s X’s and O’s — and his connection to the hot coaches of the time, Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan — put him on the Packers’ radar, his ability to relate to people might have won him the job and then won over his players — most importantly, Rodgers.
“I’m happy he’s here,” Rodgers said this week of LaFleur. “We’ve had a great time together. We’ve been laughing all the way to the NFC championship last year and back in the playoffs this year about any question about our working relationship.”
Meanwhile, Gutekunst saw two players from his first two draft classes named to the Pro Bowl this week: cornerback Jaire Alexander (first round, 2018) and guard Elgton Jenkins (second round, 2019). But his biggest move to date came in April, when he traded up to take quarterback Jordan Love in the first round.
“He called me and said, ‘This is what we’re going to do,’ and I was fully supportive of it,” Murphy said. “Brian knows he’s got my support, and I think he also knows how important the quarterback position is. When you think you’ve got somebody that can be a franchise quarterback, you draft him.”
The Packers (11-3) already have clinched the division title for the second consecutive season and they could secure the NFC’s No. 1 seed with a victory Sunday (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC) over the visiting Tennessee Titans, for whom LaFleur was the offensive coordinator in 2018, and some help.
In a season altered by COVID-19, the Packers have excelled partly because of Murphy’s trio of lieutenants — Ball, Gutekunst and LaFleur — and how well they’ve worked together.
“I do not think you can overcommunicate, especially during a pandemic,” Murphy said. “Obviously people have different management and leadership styles. One of the things I like to do — and it’s really hard now — is walk throughout the building and talk to people.
“I particularly see it with Matt and Brian and Russ — they’re always in touch with each other. I’m very pleased with Matt and Brian and Russ and proud of what they’ve accomplished so far. I know ultimately we’re going to be judged on how we end the season, and hopefully we’re playing in February.”