Acme Packing Company
Hidden in the reporting from the Athletic’s Dianna Russini and Matt Schneidman on the Green Bay Packers bringing back head coach Matt LaFleur is this quote: “In their recent meetings, [president and CEO Ed] Policy didn’t mandate LaFleur make changes with his staff, and a source said neither [general manager Brian] Gutekunst nor [executive vice president/director of football operations Russ] Ball would, either.” If that reporting is true, then staff changes won’t be forced upon LaFleur and probably weren’t a big part of contract talks, which ended up lasting seven days from the Packers’ loss to the Chicago Bears until the head coach inked a multi-year extension.
On top of that, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Silverstein reported on Saturday night that the team’s organizational structure will not be changing, as each of Gutekunst, Ball and LaFleur will each individually report to Policy, rather than the general manager being the president’s sole direct report, which was Green Bay’s previous model before then president Mark Murphy changed the structure in 2018.
It appears that all of the reporting by league-wide insiders, like ESPN’s Adam Schefter, that had claimed since early on in this process that the LaFleur contract dispute was really about money, rather than LaFleur’s performance, was correct. LaFleur, reportedly, won’t be losing power within the organizational structure and can run it back with his 2025 staff (barring defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley leaving for a head coaching gig), if that’s his wish.
