Jordan Love will need to continue growing as the Green Bay Packers’ starting quarterback without his respected position coach, Tom Clements.

The Packers announced that Clements, 71, is retiring, and head coach Matt LaFleur said that the next step for Love’s development is to take on a stronger vocal leadership role within the team.

“I think the next step is just to continue to evolve as a vocal leader,” LaFleur said of Love during his season wrap-up press conference on Tuesday.

Clements will be remembered as the only coach to have worked with Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, and Jordan Love.

This marks Clements’ second or third retirement, depending on how he views it. He first joined Green Bay as quarterbacks coach in 2006 under Mike McCarthy and left after the 2016 season. He took two years off before the Arizona Cardinals hired him to work with Kyler Murray, who was named Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2019.

Clements also coached for the Saints, Chiefs, Steelers, and Bills.

In 2023, Clements told ESPN that if he had retired after his first stint with Green Bay, then he would have been “retired, retired” after the 2020 season in Arizona. However, Rodgers convinced him to return to Green Bay in 2022 after Luke Getsy left to become the offensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears.

“Man, it’s been a cool ride with him for the last three years,” LaFleur said about Clements, a former star quarterback in the Canadian Football League after his college career at Notre Dame.

“Talk about Favre, Rodgers, and then the development of Jordan Love. I mean, that’s pretty cool. I know he’s meant a lot to this organization — his contributions — and he will definitely be missed. I can’t say enough great things about him. I really appreciate him.”

Clements had two stints with the Packers, coaching quarterbacks Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, and Jordan Love during his 14 seasons with the team.

The Packers have several in-house candidates to replace Clements, including assistant quarterbacks coach Connor Lewis and former NFL quarterback Sean Mannion, who joined the Packers’ staff this season as an offensive assistant. Getsy also spent part of this season as a consultant after he was fired as the Raiders’ offensive coordinator.

The next coach for Love will be responsible for helping him grow as a starting quarterback. LaFleur called Love “an ascending player that is going to get better and better and better,” adding that he believes Love’s leadership role will keep growing.

“I think that just kind of comes with the position naturally,” LaFleur said. “I think he’s taken steps to get there, but I think he can really demand a lot because the locker room respects him. And they respect him not only as a person but by the work he puts in. He’s a grinder. He’s one of the guys; I think that’s one of his best qualities is he is one of the guys.”

“They all respect him, but I think, when things aren’t quite right, I think he can voice that as well. When guys aren’t quite doing what they’re supposed to be doing, and he’s one of the guys to talk to [them] about that. I just think it means more when it comes from your quarterback than it does from me or one of our other coaches.”

After a strong finish to his first season as a starter in 2023, which led to a four-year, $220 million contract extension, Love missed two games early in the season because of a knee injury and dealt with a groin injury midseason.

He threw 25 touchdowns and 11 interceptions during the regular season, but went the last seven regular-season games without an interception, only to throw three in the playoff loss to the Eagles on Sunday.

The Packers finished the season with 11 wins but ended with a three-game losing streak, including the playoffs, during which the offense struggled.

“Do I think he can play better? Absolutely,” LaFleur said. “Do I think I can help him out and be better? Absolutely. Do I think we can play better around him? Absolutely.”

“I just think it’s too much to put it on one person. I really do. I think collectively, we have to be better, and I expect better. We performed at a pretty high level a majority of the season and then took a dive. That’s why it feels, I’d say, different than a year ago.”