'You Can Pass Don Freaking Shula': Kay Adams Highlights Incredible Matt LaFleur Stat That’ll Surely Excite Green Bay Fans

After serving as an offensive coordinator in 2017 and 2018, Matt LaFleur was deemed ready for the big chair in 2019. The Green Bay Packers brought him on board, and they haven’t missed a beat, transitioning not only from Mike McCarthy to LaFleur, but also from Aaron Rodgers to his successor, Jordan Love, who has made the playoffs in each of his first two seasons as the starter.

Over LaFleur’s six-year tenure, the Packers rank seventh in points per game (25.5), 10th in yards per game (358.9), fifth in yards per play (5.8), and fourth in total wins (67). That last stat is particularly significant, as those 67 wins give him a chance to reach a unique benchmark during the 2025 season.

During an interview with Kay Adams, LaFleur was informed that he had the chance to pass the great Don Shula for the most wins in the first seven years of a head coaching career. Yes, you heard that right.

Don Shula only managed 71 wins in the seven-year tenure he had with the Baltimore Colts that launched his career. That means LaFleur needs a measly five wins to surpass the Hall of Famer. LaFleur was pleasantly surprised by this information, but not much more than that.

“Well, I think we play more games nowadays, too so. (Smiles) No, he’s a legend. Obviously, I know his grandson, Chris, pretty well, and I’ve got a lot of respect for that entire family,” the head coach said.

“But, you know, it’s a credit to everybody. It always is. We’ve had great players, great coaches, and a great organization, so. And the expectation is you better win here.”

The reason LaFleur probably isn’t overly excited about a meaningless regular season record through seven seasons is because he has yet to find the postseason success he’s been yearning for. And as it turns out, Kay Adams and her team got the stat quite wrong. While Shula is up there, he doesn’t hold the record, and is barely in the top five.

However, based on 67 wins through six seasons, LaFleur could still break the record, which is actually held by another Packers coach, as far as we can tell. There are no lists for this stat, so we manually looked up all the top coaches and their records through the first seven seasons.

Adams misquoted the stat, but LaFleur is still in good company

We know that Matt LaFleur has a chance to pass Don Shula, who is the overall winningest coach in NFL history, with 347 total wins (328 regular season, 19 postseason). But it turns out, he’ll need to pass a few more guys to actually get the record. Sorry, Kay.

His predecessor at Lambeau Field, Mike McCarthy, also received his first head coaching opportunity from the Packers, back in 2006. And it turns out, McCarthy technically holds the record, having won 74 games in his first seven seasons.

However, the legendary Paul Brown actually won 76 during his first seven years. The only caveat there is that for the first four years, his Cleveland Browns were in the AAFC. His first seven NFL seasons resulted in 63 wins. But considering they were playing just 12 or 14 games a season back then, it’s arguably more impressive.

Other legendary coaches also fell short of Shula, such as Vince Lombardi (68), Bill Parcells (64), Bill Belichick (52), and Bill Walsh (59). However, there are a whole bunch of new age coaches with 70+ wins in their first seven seasons. Sean Payton had 73, John Harbaugh had 72, and Andy Reid, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tomlin all had 71.

With all that being said, Matt LaFleur still has a great chance to become the most winningest coach through the first seven seasons. He just needs eight wins to get it done instead of five. That shouldn’t be a problem, considering his worst season so far was an 8-win campaign.