It's the end of an era in Green Bay. And it's an era that the average fan might not even know about, or understand. But it quite possibly could have been one of the most impactful eras in franchise history. Tuesday in his end-of-season press conference, Matt LaFleur announced that longtime Packers' Quarterbacks coach, and a man I like to refer to as "The True Quarterback Whisperer" will be retiring. In two different stints, Tom Clements spent 14 years with the Packers, in positions such as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. He initially retired in 2020 following a two-year stint with the Arizona Cardinals, but after Aaron Rodgers intrigued him with the idea of returning to the Packers to work with him and Jordan Love, he decided to come out of retirement for three more years in Green Bay. 

Clements arrived in Green Bay along with Mike McCarthy in 2006 as Quarterbacks coach and he walked into a QB room that consisted of the legendary Brett Favre, and the young talented QB prospect, Aaron Rodgers. How's he going to handle a guaranteed first-ballot Hall of Famer approaching the end of his career, along with a young talented prospect looking to take the Hall of Famer's job soon? Well, Tom Clements had a pretty decent resume. Before he came to Green Bay, Clements had tutored three different Pro Bowl Quarterbacks. Elvis Grbac in Kansas City, Tommy Maddox in Pittsburgh, and also Kordell Stewart in Pittsburgh. Those three Quarterbacks are names that unless you followed football closely in their eras, you likely didn't know their names. Clements had a way of maximizing the untapped potential of any Quarterback he touched. Even one that had already seen it all like Brett Favre. 

Before Clements' arrival, Brett Favre had become a loose canon. The season before he had thrown a career-high 29 interceptions. He was trying to rely on his ability to make magic happen instead of using his knowledge of the game. Clements was able to rope Favre in and before you knew it, Brett Favre was spending more time in the film room and even his throwing mechanics had changed a bit. This led to one of his best years in 2007. Favre completed a career-high 66.5% of pass attempts, surpassed 4K yards, and achieved the third-best passer rating of his career. Favre was also a runner-up in nearly achieving his fourth MVP award.

All while resurrecting the career of a legend, Clements was also prepping Aaron Rodgers for his own legendary career. Aaron Rodgers credits Tom Clements for much of his success going on to win four MVP awards, a Super Bowl, and a future bust in the Hall of Fame much like his predecessor. In between stints in Green Bay, Clements also coached Cardinals QB Kyler Murray to a Pro Bowl making him his sixth Pro Bowl QB. But then after a few years of enjoying retirement, it was back to Green Bay where he coached up Jordan Love to take over the reins for Aaron Rodgers for three years before deciding that it was time to return to retirement at 71 years old. 

In Green Bay, he resurrected the career of a legend while molding another, and time will tell his impact on the franchise due to his work with Jordan Love.

How do you replace that?

Choosing a Successor

As I said before, Tom Clements has coached up successors to two legendary quarterbacks. But now it's time for the Packers to choose the legendary coach's successor. 

Even before this season, I couldn't help myself but to make the joke that I wish they could place Tom Clements' brain in a younger body so the Packers could benefit from his knowledge for much longer. That technology doesn't exist, yet, so, the next best thing could be those that have learned from him. The Packers are notorious for promoting from within. Just like they have with their Quarterbacks in the last 20 years, they like to develop their coaches, scouts, and even executives in-house. The top in-house candidates to take over for Tom Clements would likely be either current passing game coordinator Jason Vrable, current Assistant Quarterbacks Coach Connor Lewis, or current Offensive Assistant, who's essentially been a second Assistant QB Coach, Sean Mannion.  Lewis is a young up-and-comer, and Mannion was seemingly brought in to be a Tom Clements apprentice, so I can't help but gravitate towards them a bit. Vrable has done good work as a past receiver coach and has been around Clements the last few years so I wouldn't doubt the knowledge rubbed off on him as well. But there's also an intriguing outside candidate.

I'm not so sure you can truly call him an outside candidate, but since he hasn't been on the Packers' coaching staff for three years, I guess you can. Luke Getsy could be an intriguing external candidate. Getsy is coming off an offensive coordinator stint in Las Vegas as well as a two-year stint with Chicago. Before that, he was the Packers' Quarterbacks coach for three years, as well as passing game coordinator for two under Matt LaFleur from 2019-2021. He was also the Offensive Quality Control coach for two years and Wide Receivers coach for two under Mike McCarthy in Green Bay from 2014-2017. For as much as Clements' knowledge is valuable to me personally, Getsy spent three seasons as a position coach under Tom Clements while Clements was the Packers' offensive coordinator. Getsy was then the Quarterbacks coach when Aaron Rodgers returned to back to back MVP form hence he earned looks as an offensive coordinator on other teams. When Getsy left, that's when Aaron Rodgers lobbied to bring back Tom Clements. I don't doubt the idea at all that Aaron Rodgers knew Getsy possessed Tom Clements' QB philosophy and the only person outside Getsy Rodgers trusted to continue with that was Clements himself. 

Of course, with the Getsy idea I could be just playing assistant coach fantasy football. But after Getsy's (in my opinion) unfair stint with the Raiders, he was spotted on the Packers' practice field and it was revealed that he was helping out the Packers' defense by way of reverse knowledge. A bit of a "how might an offense attack you and how can you react in response." type of temporary position. Like Robert Saleh's little temporary position with the Packers, this could be just Matt LaFleur helping his friend stay busy and sharp before their next stint on another team for the benefit of his squad. But in Getsy's case, I'm not so sure after two failed coordinator stints in three years, that teams will be banging down his door to bring him on for their coordinator position. 

The availability of Luke Getsy could be why when Matt LaFleur announced the retirement of Tom Clements and was asked about Clements' successor he gave kind of a wry smile when saying "You'll just have to see what happens." There very well could be the chance that Tom Clements informed Matt LaFleur of his plans to retire following the conclusion of the 2024 season and that's why LaFleur brought in Getsy. LaFleur could easily have an experienced and trusted coach familiar with his philosophies, familiar with his franchise QB, and well-versed in the knowledge of his legendary departing positional coach. 

Of course, this could all go in a completely different direction with a coach having no prior connections to the Packers, Tom Clements, or Matt LaFleur at all. And don't get me wrong, perhaps a completely new approach to the QB position could be what sends Jordan Love's career into the stratosphere. However, given how invaluable Clements has been to this organization for almost 20 years now, I can't help but want that "QB coaching lineage" to continue. Time will just have to tell.