Report: Falcons QBs coach Matt LaFleur could be hired as Rams offensive coordinator

The biggest game in Falcons franchise history is about to happen, and even so, the coaching rumors are flying around. NFL insiders should just take a day off, dangit.

Inevitably, teams will start sniffing around Falcons offensive assistants after the team put together a historic season. Kyle Shanahan is already headed to San Francisco as their new head coach, possibly with some of his longtime assistants, and now LaFleur looks like he may get a shot at an offensive coordinator gig. Of course, it’s the Rams, so that’s not going to be an easy gig to take on.

LaFleur has plenty of experience as a quarterbacks coach and has done good work with Matt Ryan this year, but none of us know how he’d look as a coordinator. Presumably he’s picked up enough from being a longtime coach and a Kyle Shanahan disciple to do the job, but it’s a big leap from working as a position coach to actually planning what an entire offense is going to do.

It’s possible that LaFleur winds up staying in Atlanta as the team’s new offensive coordinator—that’s not a bad outcome for either side—but with the team being publicly linked to Chip Kelly and LaFleur looking elsewhere, the Falcons are probably going to have to get moving on wooing the quarterbacks coach after today if that’s what they’re hoping for. Ultimately, I have to think he winds up elsewhere with Kelly here, but we’ll have plenty of time to consider that shortly.