There is something poetic about familiar rivals meeting one last time with everything on the line. For the third time this season, the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks will see each other. With a ticket to the Super Bowl in the balance, the NFC Championship will be hosted in Lumen Field.
A Look at Mike LaFleur’s Career as a Player
The first two meetings were tight, tense, and unforgettable, exactly the kind of games that turn coaches into quiet protagonists. On the Rams’ sideline, one of those figures is offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur.
Mike LaFleur’s relationship with football began far from NFL stadiums, at Elmhurst University. Born in March 1987, LaFleur came to Elmhurst and started his collegiate career as a quarterback, taking snaps for the Bluejays during the 2006 and 2007 seasons. It was a place that demanded leadership from him, calm under pressure, and an understanding of how every moving piece fit together, traits that would quietly follow him into coaching.
In 2008, LaFleur made a change that said a lot about the kind of football mind he possessed. He moved to safety and started all 10 games that season, shifting his focus from directing the offense to reading it. By the time his playing days ended, LaFleur had become a team captain and a three-time letter winner.
Unlike many NFL coaches, LaFleur never made the leap to professional football as a player. He stayed close to the roots of the game, stepping into coaching immediately. In 2009, he joined Elmhurst’s staff as offensive assistant, beginning what would become a carefully layered coaching career. He spent the next few years honing his craft at the collegiate level, coaching at Saint Joseph’s from 2010 to 2012 before earning an offensive coordinator role at Davidson in 2013.
The NFL came calling in 2014, when LaFleur accepted an offensive intern position with the Cleveland Browns under Kyle Shanahan. He then followed Shanahan to the Atlanta Falcons in 2015 and 16, then to the San Francisco 49ers in 2017, where he served as passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach.
In 2021, LaFleur took on the challenge of becoming offensive coordinator for the New York Jets. The results were mixed, which led to an eventual split in 2022. In Jan. 2023, LaFleur found his next chapter with the Los Angeles Rams, wherein his offensive unit is ranked first in PFSN’s OFFi with a score of 92.3.
