Matt LaFleur isn't a finalist for NFL Coach of the Year and social media can't believe it

Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur doesn't get a lot of national respect, does he?

Despite entering the 2023 season among coaches with the highest winning percentages in NFL history that was never enough for him to earn year-end honors through his first four years. And now after his team's playoff season in 2023 he's not even a finalist for NFL Coach of the Year.

Many, of course, tied his success to Aaron Rodgers. So, what did LaFleur do without Rodgers when many expected the Packers to take a step back in their "rebuilding season" and a roster that didn't include any Pro Bowl or All-Pros?

He led the wide-eyed Packers, who finished 9-8 in the regular season, to the playoffs. He did this with the youngest roster in the NFL. No team younger than the Packers had even qualified for the postseason in nearly 50 years much less win a game. The Packers did both.

And it certainly didn't get easier when All-Pro and Pro Bowl players went down with injuries and missed large portions of the season.

After a rocky start, LaFleur had the Packers playing their best ball in the second half of the season and clearly put his stamp on a new-look offense, which got better as quarterback Jordan Love came into his own. The Packers won six of their final eight games, including three straight to advance to the postseason. Sure, there were clunkers, but the Packers won several big games before national audiences this season. Maybe the voters weren't watching.

Of note, the awards are voted on before the playoffs.

And to be fair, the five finalists (Detroit Lions' Dan Campbell, Baltimore Ravens' John Harbaugh, Houston Texans' DeMeco Ryans, San Francisco 49ers' Kyle Shanahan and Cleveland Browns' Kevin Stefanski) also had their teams in the playoffs. Campbell, Harbaugh and Shanahan still have their teams playing in the NFC or AFC championships on Sunday.

The other two — Stefanski in Cleveland and Ryans in Houston — had pretty good stories, themselves. Stefanski led a Browns franchise that had only been to the playoffs one other time in 21 years back to the postseason. The team that beat the Browns in the wild-card round of the playoffs was Ryans' Texans. Ryans accomplished the feat in his first year in charge with a rookie quarterback, though one that like Love showed he was more than capable and is the favorite for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.

While the voters didn't give LaFleur his props, social media certainly did.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Matt LaFleur isn't NFL coach of the year finalist, social media reacts