Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Is Matt LaFleur's job be on the line when Bears, Packers meet in playoffs? (Hour 1)
07 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What are the implications of the Bears-Packers playoff matchup?
This hour is brought to you by Vasectomy Clinics of Chicago. The views and opinions of Layla Rahimi, Marshall Harris, and Mark Grody should not be taken too seriously. Especially when they give advice. Do not take Marshall's analogies literally. Especially when it comes to Russell Dorsey. The sports thoughts of Rahimi, Harris, and Grody may change at any time. It's just sports. Okay, thanks, bye.
Rahimi, Harris, and Grody. 10 to 2. On 670.
We all had different interpretations of what Ben Johnson had to say yesterday after he watched the film.
We got a number of areas that we could play better. But at the same time, I mean, the number one thing is that we're looking to limit the opponent with their points. And I thought our defense played well enough for us to win that ballgame.
Okay, I get that. But at the same time, you didn't win it. And in the game before, you didn't win, and that was too many points. It can be that simple sometimes.
It's not that simple.
It is that simple. It can especially be that simple when you consider how much the Lions outgamed the Bears at the half last Sunday and how much the 49ers outgamed the Bears in the half the week before.
What upsets me about this or gets me angry about this is that he is in charge of the defense, too. I don't like it when you have a head coach who we know what his major is. We know that Ben Johnson is the offensive genius and he's the play caller and all of that goes with it. But guess what? He's in charge of the defense, too.
You know that going into the postseason, having a defense that has been exposed that badly is a really horrible thing. You got lucky. You got lucky to give up just the 19 points.
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Chapter 2: How does John Harbaugh's firing impact the NFL coaching landscape?
I mean, luck? What coked-out, glass-piped suckers came up with that little chestnut?
Okay, I completely disagree with both of you here, and here's why. Here's the reality. Ben Johnson, after 17 games, understands what he has in the defense and what he is lacking in the defense. And he understands we're in the playoffs now.
The things that you guys want corrected, the things that the city of Chicago wants corrected about the Bears defense is not going to be corrected until the offseason. That is something you have to accept. They're not going to get to the quarterback at a level in which would make us all feel a little bit more comfortable with the defense. You You know what?
That statement gets more and more true about us as a whole every single day. That we can't handle the truth? Yeah. It's been that way for a while now.
Yeah, but when you hear it like that, thanks to Tyler Beterbaugh's open, really puts it all in perspective there, doesn't it? This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody on 670 The Score. And this is a day that we are lucky. As Bears fans, we don't have to deal with when it comes to trying to figure out who the head coach is here. So now we just get to sit back and watch the chaos. Just put your feet up.
Put your head, you know, tilt it back in your hands a little bit. Not Saranda Kober style, but, you know, more like relaxing style.
Goes back to one of the big truths in life. Everyone loves drama. But you know what they really love? Other people's drama.
Yeah, everyone loves drama when it's not yours. And for those of you who like it when it's yours, what's your heart rate like every day?
Toxic.
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Chapter 3: What factors led to the Ravens' decision to part ways with Harbaugh?
Yeah. What's happening there?
Right.
When there's drama, look for trauma, as they say. And that's kind of the case here on a lighter note when it comes to the game changer that is John Harbaugh's firing in the NFL after 18 years. 18 years.
Yeah.
The Ravens had him locked up for 18 years. And now a changing of the guard. And I think what we knew at some point would come to an end because all of them do in the NFL. You know, there was a weird symmetry watching the Ravens and the Steelers game on Sunday night. But it's knowing now that...
Not only does this become the game changer for coaching in the league when it comes to the current head coaching jobs that are open, but that he's such a big name, it could affect playoff teams. This coaching cycle is far from over. It is far from decided. I don't know that we have all the names yet, and it's crazy to think about.
But when you consider, for example, two-time head coach of the year, Kevin Stefanski is out. When you see what happened with other teams that have decided to go whole hog and just get rid of their GM and their head coach like Raheem Morris and what happened in Atlanta. This is not just a situation. Yeah, Pete Carroll.
If you told me at this time last year that Pete Carroll would get the Raiders job and then Can you say be fired? But you know the results and what happened. He's no longer with that team. So many unlikely scenarios happened here. The Arizona head coaching scenario is not unlikely. That was pretty likely. But others...
This is a game changer, and it reminded me of what happened when Craig Council became available, where you thought David Ross would be okay even though the team didn't make the playoffs until Jed Hoyer let him know that it wasn't.
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Chapter 4: What are the potential coaching changes following the playoffs?
I don't know that it's quite to that level because the difference is obviously everyone was surprised that both on the Cubs side and the Brewers side, obviously with the way that this has ended in Baltimore, no one's going to be surprised. But everybody's wondering who exactly is going to scoop him up because the belief is he's not taking a season off. He's not going to a television network.
He will be coaching somewhere next year for an NFL team. And it's like this game of musical chairs. And if you are a head coach right now with a job, by the way, you might be making sure that that chair is still there after wildcard weekend goes away. Yeah.
Well, and that's it. Let's go through it because when your standard is the Super Bowl for some of these teams, when your standard is making the playoffs for others like it is in the AFC for John Harbaugh and Baltimore, that's when this all gets changed. And that's why I think it is very reasonable to now say, number one, he's the top name in the head coaching cycle.
Number two, are there other teams that have head coaching positions that are currently filled that might not be later? Number three, are some of those teams playoff teams? And that's where this goes for me. Number four is trying to figure out how to process what just happened. Because the reports about the relationship being strained between John Harbaugh and Lamar Jackson...
I like to say that there's you, there's me, and then there's the relationship we have together. And those are three separate things. And that's important to keep in mind when we talk about how this may have fallen apart or at least soured or just gotten to this current state with the Ravens.
Well, if the reports are true, and there's plenty of corroborating reports out there about why John Harbaugh is no longer with the Ravens, because ultimately they came short of their goal. And you said it, the standard, make the playoffs. I believe in 12 of the 18 seasons. They made the playoffs. They have won a Super Bowl. So clearly he is a capable coach.
There's a reason why he just automatically leaps to the top of the heap despite being let go or parting ways, however you want to frame that from an agent perspective or from an organizational perspective. And it goes back to Sunday night, which was the best game of the day Sunday. It had the most on the line. And you talked about the meme that was floating around social media.
If the kick is made, is this entire conversation about Mike Tomlin? And is John Harbaugh safe for another year?
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Chapter 5: How has the coaching carousel been affected by playoff outcomes?
Or, let me run you one better, even if they make the kick and Patrick Mahomes is not around, you lose in the wild card round, and then maybe he still gets fired, which could happen to Mike Tomlin still.
This is a sea change moment in the NFL.
Yes.
And you know, my statement for a long time, my formula that I lived by for at least the last six years or so was Ravens, Chiefs, and Bills.
How'd that work out for you this year?
Ravens, Chiefs, and Bills. Ravens, Chiefs, and Bills. And the Bills are the only team left in that conversation right now in the playoffs. And we know that the Chiefs got eliminated relatively early when it came to playoff contention. The discussion made sense when it came to if they were on their last legs last year.
The eye test did not match the record necessarily, didn't match the playoff result, still getting to the Super Bowl. But the fact of the matter is, you knew that that was starting to... Age, for lack of a better term, and really that's what you were seeing, was a team getting older and more expensive. And welcome Joe Tooney to Chicago.
Hey man, get rid of Joe Tooney. You don't know what could happen. Those cracks could all of a sudden shatter your organization. The one score record from last year for the Chiefs compared to the one score record this year of the Chiefs, they'd lost exactly one one-score game. I think they won one one-score game this season.
So there's that. There's that part of it. One-score games are definitive in the National Football League because the majority of games are decided by one score. So as you put it, the Mahomeless Chiefs, the playoffs do not have Patrick Mahomes. Check. So you understand that. Andy Reid ain't going nowhere. We don't expect him to.
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Chapter 6: What role does quarterback performance play in coaching stability?
It was time for a change. We know how they had lost games.
18 years. Found out the job wasn't his.
Yeah, exactly. Well, the job was his. The difference is he got paid in this scenario.
He did. Paid out handsomely.
But I say that to say... They had a confluence of things happen. How many times do we talk about just the incredible games that we would see the NFL schedule every season, you know, to start the year and the Ravens would lose one of those heartbreakers. Then there were the playoff games where the Ravens would lose another heartbreaker.
Then there's the Chiefs and Bills saga where the Bills were usually on the losing end of that heartbreaker. So you start to see these scenarios unfold. Then there was the issue with Lamar Jackson's health. Then there was that ridiculous CVS receipt of a Ravens injury report way too early in the year, but they've dealt with that before.
But the health of Lamar Jackson was always a concern even when he was reportedly healthy. Kind of like Jalen Johnson, you know when your guy doesn't look the same. And I feel like that's what we were watching. The whole time Lamar Jackson's on the field after he got back, I'm thinking to myself, this isn't the same guy.
Is that a situation where we don't know just how bad off the injury made him? Or is the team taking a step back, much like the Chiefs took a step back this past season?
I mean, to meet all day with ownership and your GM in the front office and understand that they went around in circles talking about John Harbaugh with the Ravens and to come up with the result that this isn't going to work because we want you to do certain things and he wasn't willing to do certain things.
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Chapter 7: What are the future prospects for coaches like Matt LaFleur?
Ben Johnson or Caleb Williams in five years or ten years? What would you rather have right now if you could only have one? That's why.
Yeah, it's a horrible question to have to ask because it puts you in a really bad position. Luckily, we don't have to answer it here in Chicago. And that's the point. We can look at this and observe and kick your feet up and enjoy the drama that is the NFL. And here's the even better part. You know, I mentioned this.
If this opens up a Craig Council scenario, where guys like even Matt LaFleur, if they lose their next playoff game, could have a situation where their job's online because one of the best in the league has now become available for reasons that made sense. Isn't it nice to know that even then... Your head coach isn't part of this.
It is, and I'll take it one step further.
This game, this weekend, if you go back to the introductory press conference, we kind of laughed, joked about it back then when it was said by Ben Johnson, as we talk about the coaching carousel, if you will, the availability of John Harbaugh after he gets fired, the second longest tenured coach in the NFL, only one year behind, obviously, Mike Tomlin, who's been with the Steelers for 19 years.
The deans of the league.
The deans of the league. And they may all be changing residency after this particular season wraps up with a Super Bowl. But... Understand this. Ben Johnson said he enjoyed beating Matt LaFleur twice a year. He only got a split in the regular season. But now, by fate of the playoff draw, he gets a second chance to beat him in this season.
And the big news is, because of the hardball, because of other things that might happen, he may only have to beat him twice to vanquish him. And just first chip of my legacy, I came in, talked about beating Matt LaFleur twice a year, and not only did I beat him, I beat him so bad they lost five straight to end the season. And guess what? He was no longer a member of the Green Bay Packers.
That's a real possibility.
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Chapter 8: How do ownership dynamics influence coaching decisions in the NFL?
Thank you for stopping yourself here. So I do think that we have to put the wishful thinking disclaimer on this, the likely projection disclaimer on this. But... Mike Florio said this yesterday. He joins us at 11 today. Mike Florio was on with Molly and high yesterday and listen to why he said this before John Harbaugh became available.
The signals have been there hiding in plain sight since this new Packers president, Ed policy said in June, no extensions, no, for LeFleur or Gutekunst before the end of the 2025 season, and I don't like lame duck arrangements. Well, they're signed through 2026, so they're either getting new contracts or they're going to be gone after the season.
And until the Packers tell us what they're going to do, we don't know what they're going to do. Is getting to the playoffs enough? Look at it this way. I remember when they expanded the postseason from six teams per conference to seven. The proposal was on the table when we were in Indianapolis for the scouting combine.
And we try to come up with questions that will ask a variety of coaches and GMs just to see what the league-wide mood is. Nobody complained. about an extra playoff spot. Because what's the ultimate litmus test to save your job? I got to the playoffs.
And without that seventh playoff spot, the Packers, who have been the seventh seed for the last three years in the NFC, they'd be on a four-year streak of no playoffs. The floor would already be gone.
So that becomes the new standard now. I think with John Harbaugh being available, and goodness knows who else might become available, and we'll get into that a little bit later in our hour, that becomes the new standard. And knowing that, knowing LeFleur's playoff record is 3-5, which is still only two games below .500 in the playoffs for the record.
It's not horrible.
Are you kidding? No. Think about his first season. He went 13-3.
Yes.
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