If Mike and Matt LaFleur ever get to face off, they’ll be the second brother pairing to do so in NFL history.
It’s taken the Arizona Cardinals forever to name a head coach, but after Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak reportedly committed to the Las Vegas Raiders this weekend, it looks like the Cardinals finally have their guy. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero, Arizona plans to hire Mike LaFleur, brother of Matt LaFleur, as its next head coach.
The Green Bay Packers will not be playing the Cardinals in the 2026 regular season, so the earliest potential matchup between the two brothers will be in the 2026 postseason.
The Harbaugh brothers, Jim and John, were the first set of brothers who faced off against each other as NFL head coaches.
Mike, unsurprisingly, comes from the same tree as Matt. He got his start in the NFL as an offensive intern with the Cleveland Browns in 2014, when Kyle Shanahan was offensive coordinator and Mike McDaniel was wide receivers coach. In 2015, he left the Browns to be an offensive assistant with the Atlanta Falcons under Shanahan, the only time he overlapped on a staff with his brother. McDaniel was also an offensive assistant for the two years that the younger LaFleur was in Atlanta.
From 2017 to 2020, he served as Shanahan’s passing game coordinator (and receivers coach from 2017 to 2018) with the San Francisco 49ers. He got a job in 2021 to be the New York Jets’ play-calling offensive coordinator under Robert Saleh, who was with LaFleur for all four years of his stint in San Francisco.
When LaFleur was let go after the 2022 season, replaced by former Packers offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, he began to work as a non-play-calling offensive coordinator under the Los Angeles Rams’ Sean McVay. He’s been in that role for the last three seasons.
After a long search, the Cardinals were down to Kubiak, LaFleur, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Raheem Morris and former Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver for the job. Notably, Jacksonville Jaguars defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile, who was LaFleur’s linebackers coach in 2024, pulled out of the race a week ago.
Category: General Sports
