From NFL backup to Packers QB coach in a year, Sean Mannion is filling big shoes

Sean Mannion knew 2023 would likely be his final year playing football. He had been in the NFL since 2015, when the Rams drafted him in the third round, largely as a backup for Los Angeles, Minnesota and Seattle.

The son of a high school football coach who always wanted to enter the same profession, Mannion could feel his playing opportunities evaporating and wanted to be proactive.

Entering the 2023 season, Mannion reached out to a handful of people in the NFL with whom he had crossed paths as a player. One of them was Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, who served as Rams offensive coordinator in 2017 when Mannion was Jared Goff’s backup. During his time off that summer, Mannion prepared an interview presentation for a future coaching job, learned how to draw on the computer like he’d need to for diagramming plays and built a film library.

“I was kind of working to hit the ground running in this field,” the 33-year-old Mannion said Wednesday in his first meeting with reporters as Packers quarterbacks coach.

After the 2023 season, during which Mannion spent time on the Vikings and Seahawks practice squads, he followed up with a bunch of people he had reached out to months before. LaFleur was waiting for Mannion’s message and responded immediately. They spoke over Zoom during the NFC Championship Game between the 49ers and Lions, a week after the Packers narrowly missed out on the game themselves, while Mannion was in Chicago for an interview to join the Bears coaching staff. Mannion showed LaFleur what he was going to present.

“I told him, ‘Wow, that’s pretty good. I think you should come up to Green Bay right when you’re done with that interview,’” LaFleur recalled last year when the Packers hired Mannion as an offensive assistant. “And I’m surprised that they let him out of the building. They tried to get him, but I guess we had more to offer … I really do think this guy’s going to have a bright future for us and certainly in the coaching profession.”

“I love his past experience … I’ve always respected how he went about his process, how he prepared for games, how he helped Jared (Goff) in that situation, being a backup for us.”

First time talking with new Packers QB coach Sean Mannion, the longtime NFL backup who retired in 2024 and joined Matt LaFleur’s staff as an offensive assistant. Now replaces the legendary Tom Clements.

Here’s his approach with Jordan Love and experience playing for LaFleur⬇️ pic.twitter.com/qKt1xcqfF3

— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) May 14, 2025

Mannion was in the quarterbacks’ room during the 2024 season, helping Packers quarterbacks coach Tom Clements and assistant quarterbacks coach Connor Lewis. LaFleur fast-tracked Mannion to the position after Clements retired following last season.

Now, he’s tasked with replacing a franchise legend who coached Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love, less than two years after finishing his own playing career.

“I actually interviewed him when I was in Buffalo to possibly draft him,” said Jason Vrable, the Packers’ passing game coordinator and former Bills offensive quality control coach. “I knew he was a coach’s kid and he talked about it in the interview, and from that first meeting, I knew he had a football mind. He was very intelligent on the board. His recall of the system was as good as anybody I’ve been around.

“Great coaches always love the behind-the-scenes work. So you talk about a guy who was here until two in the morning every single night last year doing the drawings, that was him. But it wasn’t work to him. He was just in there doing his job to the best of his ability, just like he would as a backup.”

Mannion called Clements a “great mentor” for him and “the picture of stability,” always even-keeled while juggling all the teaching points of the quarterback position. Clements, who stepped away at age 71, emphasized fundamentals and Mannion was constantly taking notes while thinking about when his turn in Clements’ role would come.

Mannion knew during his entire playing career that he wanted to coach after retirement, so he was absorbing knowledge to help him as a player, yes, but also for his future job. Perhaps the most important tidbit he soaked up was with LaFleur in 2017, one that is relevant today since LaFleur said it’s something Love needs to improve.

‘To me, it really starts with footwork,” Mannion said. “That’s something that all quarterbacks need to focus on, but I know really when I was first exposed to it was with Matt in L.A. in 2017. It was really a kind of foundational moment in my playing career. I got so much better from understanding how the footwork helps your accuracy. It helps your decision-making. It helps the timing of the play, so that’s really kind of the starting point … really with any quarterback, but Jordan in particular, we really just always want to have that point of emphasis at the forefront of our mind.”

Mannion was coached by LaFleur, Sean McVay and former NFL quarterbacks Zac Taylor, Kevin O’Connell and Gary Kubiak, among others. As another NFL QB-turned-coach, Mannion knows firsthand, for example, how to help Love and Malik Willis best digest 15-item offensive installs. Or how to learn a playbook on short notice if a quarterback signs mid-season, as Mannion did with the Vikings in 2023.

And like Taylor, O’Connell and Kubiak, Mannion was a reserve in the league, which he thinks adds even more value when transitioning to the other side of the meeting room.

“I joke with my wife, Megan, I would spend more time with the starting quarterback than I would with my family once the season started,” Mannion said. “I think when you’re taking that mindset on in the role of a backup, in a lot of ways it’s similar to a quarterback coach, where I’m thinking about how am I best helping our quarterback, our starter, prepare on a weekly basis. I think you’re kind of naturally veering into that territory.”

As Mannion veers into new territory this offseason, he must not only fill the shoes of one of the best assistants in Packers history but also help Love consistently play like a $220 million quarterback. If his fast ascension to this new role indicates what he’s capable of, Mannion should be just fine doing both.

“Super smart, great work ethic and a really good communicator with the guys,” Packers offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said. “I think he’s a really good resource now that Tom’s gone, to just have another guy who’s played a lot of football in the NFL, has that experience … I think that’s always good, too, to get a new guy in the room just to have different ideas, have different ways of presenting things and he’s done a great job so far.”

(Photo: Courtesy of Evan Siegle / Green Bay Packers head photographer)

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