Former Titans OC Matt LaFleur trying to find common ground with Aaron Rodgers

Former Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur is already trying to iron out some kinks with quarterback Aaron Rodgers as head coach of the Green Bay Packers.

One of the flaws of Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur during his time as offensive coordinator with the Tennessee Titans was him not allowing quarterback Marcus Mariota more freedom at the line of scrimmage.

Now, that issue seems to be popping back up with his current quarterback, Aaron Rodgers.

In a piece done by NFL.com’s Mike Silver, Rodgers and his new head coach are at odds on how the offense will be run. Rodgers wants to be able to call the shots at the line of scrimmage when necessary, which is something LaFleur’s system doesn’t normally allow because he likes to scheme his wide receivers open.

Rodgers made it clear he wasn’t exactly thrilled with his limited ability to switch things up on the fly, something he has excelled at his entire career. With that said, Rodgers also made it clear he and his new head coach are working things out.

Here’s Rodgers’ quote from Silver’s piece.

"“It’s a conversation in progress,” Rodgers said when we spoke at his locker last Tuesday, punctuating his words with a short chuckle. “I don’t think you want to ask me to turn off 11 years (of recognizing defenses). We have a number of check with mes and line-of-scrimmage stuff. It’s just the other stuff that really not many people in this league can do.“That’s not like a humblebrag or anything; that’s just a fact. There aren’t many people that can do at the line of scrimmage what I’ve done over the years. I mean, obviously, Tommy (Brady) can do it, no doubt. Peyton (Manning) could do it. Drew (Brees) can do it. (Patrick) Mahomes will be able to do it. Ben (Roethlisberger) has called the two-minute for years. There are a few of us who’ve just done it; it’s kind of second nature. And that’s just the icing on the cake for what I can do in this offense.”"

Before anyone jumps to conclusions about this situation being a disaster in the making based off the majority of that quote, LaFleur himself admitted he’s trying to adjust to having an experienced quarterback like Rodgers who can make the right pre-snap reads.

"“Aaron and I have had some good talks, and we’re going to have to talk a lot more — and one thing we have to work through is the audible thing,” LaFleur explained. “We’re running a system I first picked up while working with Kyle (Shanahan) in Houston a decade ago, and we’ve never really had a quarterback who’s had complete freedom to change plays at the line, because that’s not really the way the offense is set up. But, I mean, this is Aaron Rodgers. He’s had a lot of freedom to make those calls, and deservedly so. Now, how do we reconcile that, and get to a place where we put him in the best position to succeed?”"

Is Matt LaFleur already in trouble with his new quarterback?

While some in the media have blown this out of proportion and made it look like a full-blown crisis, to me it seems like this is a work in progress. Chances are LaFleur will change his tune at least somewhat, which is something he wasn’t willing to do in his one year running the Titans’ offense.

After all, Rodgers and Mariota are two different quarterbacks at two very different stages of their careers. It would only make sense for LaFleur to break his offensive mold for his new signal-caller.