It took just one year for current Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor and Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur to become close friends.
Both Taylor and LaFleur were coaches on Sean McVay’s staff in Los Angeles. While coaching the Rams in 2017, LaFleur and Taylor shared neighboring offices.
LaFleur was the offensive coordinator and Taylor was the quarterbacks coach. Both went on to become head coaches and square off for the first time this Sunday when the Bengals host the Packers.
The Bengals and Packers are both 3-1 and sit atop their respective divisions, making this game even more interesting. LaFleur is 31-9 since taking over as head coach of his team, Taylor is 9-26-1.
“Zac Taylor, first and foremost, he’s a great person,” LaFleur said on Wednesday. “He’s a guy I’ll always root for except this week. I have a lot of respect for him in terms how he sees the game, his work ethic, his ability to communicate not only with the coaches but with the players. I thought he did an outstanding job for us in the one year I was with him in Los Angeles.”
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After the 2017 season, LaFleur went on to become the Tennessee Titans’ offensive coordinator before being named head coach of the Packers in 2019.
When the Bengals hired Taylor the same year, many questioned the hire simply because Taylor wasn’t an offensive coordinator at the time calling plays.
But the Bengals saw what LaFleur saw every day in working with Taylor – a guy who has what it takes to lead a team and be an NFL head coach.
“It wasn’t a shock to me that he got a head coaching job and I think he’s done a really nice job with his football team,” Taylor said. “You can see the growth watching them this year. This is a really good group; I think probably one of the more under the radar teams out there. Watching them in every phase man, they bring it in every phase, every play. That’s the one thing that stands out to me is just how physical and relentless they are. It’s going to be a great test for us, a great challenge.”
Matt LaFleur, Zac Taylor football approach similar
There’s a lot similarities between LaFleur and Taylor’s offenses. They both come from the Shanhan/McVay West Coast, wide-zone scheme offense built around play-action and stretching a defense horizontally in the pass game. In the run game, it’s all centered around the zone block approach.
Taylor and LaFleur are both known for their work with quarterbacks, perhaps why the two had so many things in common to talk about. LaFleur was the quarterbacks coach when the Atlanta Falcons went to Super Bowl LI and Matt Ryan was named NFL MVP in 2016.
Make no mistake though, Taylor wants to beat LaFleur’s team and their friendship will take a backseat on Sunday, despite how much the two like one another. “I just think he’s a resilient guy,” LaFleur said of Taylor. “He’s a guy that’s going to keep his head down, keep battling and chopping each and every day.”
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