Acme Packing Company
It has long been wondered if new Green Bay Packers president and CEO Ed Policy would change his stance on the organization’s structure. Before 2018, the year Brian Gutekunst replaced Ted Thompson as general manager, the head coach reported to the general manager, who in turn reported directly to the president and CEO.
Many speculated that Policy wanted to reinstall that system, rather than the one they currently have, where both the head coach and general manager report directly to the president and CEO, separately.
And it’s possible that the Packers wanted that structure, but according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Silverstein, the current structure will remain, following the extensions of head coach Matt LaFleur, general manager Brian Gutekunst and executive vice president/director of football operations Russ Ball (better known as the team’s cap wizard). Each will report to Policy independently, as they have in the past.
Functionally, as far as the coaching staff and the front office’s relationship goes, I don’t expect this to be a big deal. As far as picking players goes, I’ve been told by a former Packers coach that Gutekunst very much takes into account coaches’ evaluations of players. Gutekunst might not let the coaches pick the groceries, but as I put it earlier this week, “he’s also not going to bring home chicken if the coaches are planning on making a steak dinner, either.”
The real power is going to be that LaFleur will, at minimum, be able to make his case to Policy, directly, instead of leaving the potential of an out-of-the-blue clipping on the table if his communication with the president and CEO had been more limited during a tough stretch. Again, I don’t think that’s a major deal with how Gutekunst’s relationship stands with the coaching staff, but it is at least somewhat of a small power victory for LaFleur (ultimately, it might not matter at all), if Policy indeed wanted to move back to the pre-2018 model.
