Only one coach has been a constant for the Green Bay Packers across Brett Favre's, Aaron Rodgers' and Jordan Love's respective tenures as the franchise's starting quarterback: quarterbacks coach Tom Clements.
Now, at the age of 71, Clements is going to retire from coaching for the second and final time. Packers head coach Matt LaFleur revealed that at his season-ending press conference on Tuesday. Clements' first tour of duty with the Packers came from 2006-2016 under then-head coach Mike McCarthy where he served as the quarterbacks coach for Favre's final two seasons in Green Bay before rising to being the team's offensive coordinator (2012-14) and associate head coach (2015-2016) while fully developing a future Hall of Famer in Rodgers.
Rodgers won a Super Bowl XLV MVP trophy and his first two NFL MVPs (2011 and 2014) while working with Clements at the start of his career, and then Clements came out of retirement to rejoin the Packers as their quarterbacks coach in 2022 after Rodgers recommended LaFleur connect with him. He stuck around to work with Love for first two seasons as Green Bay's starting quarterback after Rodgers' departure to the New York Jets. Love's 57 passing touchdowns in his first two seasons as the Packers starting quarterback are the second-most for a Green Bay QB in their first two years starting, trailing only Rodgers' 58 from 2008-2009. Love also set Packers single-game playoff records for passing yards per attempt (13.0) and passer rating (157.2) in the team's 48-32 wild-card round win at the second-seeded Dallas Cowboys in the 2023 postseason.
"Tom Clements is going to retire. Man, it's been a cool ride with him for the last three years," LaFleur said Tuesday. "He's incredibly consistent. What a great man, great mind. Obviously, he's had the opportunity to coach some of the best. I mean, when you talk about [Brett] Favre, [Aaron] Rodgers, and then the development of Jordan Love, I mean, that's pretty cool. I know he's meant a lot to this organization and his contributions. He will definitely be missed. I just can't say enough great things about him. Really appreciate him."
LaFleur said he felt there are "potentially" in-house candidates for Green Bay's vacancy at the quarterbacks coach position, but then said "we'll see what happens" with a grin. Going in-house could be a smart move given Clements' process in developing quarterbacks with the Packers clearly yielded high-level results. However, with Green Bay paying Love top-of-the-market value on his four-year, $220 million deal, it wouldn't hurt for LaFleur to cast a wide net for such a critical position coach hire.
