Acme Packing Company
As we inch closer toward the end of the Green Bay Packers’ season, it seems more and more clear that Packers president and CEO Ed Policy plans to bring both head coach Matt LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst back in 2026, despite electing not extend either in his first summer as the pseudo-owner of the team.
In his column to start the new year on Packers.com, Policy stated that he was “extremely proud” of the 2025 team and noted that the squad battled through injuries this year. As of now, Green Bay has 17 players on the injured reserve or physically unable to perform lists, after changing over their training staff in 2024. In Week 18 alone, the Packers’ front office had to make 23 roster moves just to field a team against the Minnesota Vikings in a game that had no consequence on Green Bay’s playoff standing.
Before that post, ESPN’s Rob Demovsky stated that he believes the Packers will go back to the team’s “old structure,” where the head coach directly reports to the general manager, instead of the head coach and general manager both reporting to the president/CEO independently. This, obviously, would be a pretty big boost for Gutekunst, who Demovsky claimed he assumes will be the GM in 2026.
So now that we’ve set this table, here’s what ESPN’s Adam Schefter had to say about LaFleur’s situation on Monday:
“I think the bigger deal is, can they figure out a contract of fair value to keep him there? I think that’s what this is about, them trying to negotiate a contract, seeing what they could come up with. If they get a deal done, it’s a non-talking point and his future is secure there. If they can’t figure out a contract that works for both sides, well then, you have to ask yourself, are they willing to let him go into the last year of his deal, which he would be, or what do you do about that?
Very rarely do teams want coaches going into the last year of their deal. Which, I believe the priority will be to re-sign to an extension this offseason.”
Schefter also added that he expects Gutekunst to receive a contract extension, too.
The way information is trickling out, it seems like Policy never really put LaFleur and Gutekunst on the hot seat. First of all, I’ve been told that Gutekunst’s job was never on the line this year, and the issue was really an extension for LaFleur — and what the optics would look like if you extended one and not the other. Secondly, it seems like Policy likes the idea of LaFleur being the head coach, based on Schefter’s comments, but is simply balking at the price of business of extending NFL head coaches in this era.
This…is unfortunately a common trope in Green Bay. Sometimes the team hires a pricey coordinator or two, but rarely, from conversations I’ve had with people in the...
