Matt LaFleur reveals if Aaron Rodgers rumors affected friendship with Kyle Shanahan
As the Aaron Rodgers offseason drama raged on in Green Bay, one ripple effect was almost pitting two friends against each other. Packers head coach Matt LaFleur is great friends with San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, and the 49ers inquired about Rodgers this offseason.
This weekend, the two friends are facing off on the field — the Packers play the 49ers on Sunday Night Football. Earlier this week, LaFleur was asked if his relationship with Shanahan was strained by the Rodgers saga.
“Kyle’s a great friend of mine,” LaFleur said Wednesday, via Bill Huber of SI.com. “Absolutely, I hold no ill will toward him.”
After LaFleur told Shanahan the Packers weren’t trading Rodgers, the 49ers traded three first-round picks to move to No. 3 overall. With that pick, they selected North Dakota State’s Trey Lance.
Eventually, Rodgers decided to return to Green Bay for a 14th season.
“I understand,” LaFleur said. “He’s trying to do whatever he thinks he needs to do for his football team. He’s got a responsibility to everybody in that organization, and if there’s an opportunity, I don’t hold that against him. So, yeah, that will have no effect on our relationship.”
While LaFleur and Shanahan may be competitors on the field, at least they can separate it from their personal relationship.
Shanahan on Rodgers: ‘I thought it’d be a quick no’
Furthermore, Shanahan recognized his phone call to LaFleur was an exercise in futility. Still, it was his duty as an interested team to pick up the phone.
“I thought it’d be a quick no,” Shanahan told reporters Wednesday about his Rodgers phone call. “Which was exactly what I thought it would be. But you hear enough stuff and I think everyone knew what was going on at that time that it didn’t seem like it [wasn’t] worth the call, but I know how we would’ve felt if it was going to happen and we didn’t call. So, you call, you get a quick answer which what was what you’re expecting and then you move on.”
Reportedly, San Francisco made the call just one day prior to selecting Lance in the 2021 NFL Draft. Additionally, Rodgers reportedly wanted the trade to happen.
Moreover, Shanahan elaborated on what the 49ers would’ve offered for Rodgers, if it ever materialized.
“I mean, we weren’t going to sit and go through all that if we didn’t know it was a possibility and just the thought of it, we didn’t see how that would happen,” Shanahan said. “So, we made sure of it and quickly realized that, well, our hunch was right, so we didn’t have to discuss it too long.”
While Shanahan didn’t get Rodgers, he got a great consolation prize in Lance. However, their first-round pick won’t be starting against Rodgers this weekend — that honor goes to Jimmy Garroppolo.
Last November, Matt LaFleur and Aaron Rodgers got the best of Kyle Shanahan. Now, the 49ers will look to avenge their 34-17 from last season.