Acme Packing Company
Earlier this week, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the issue with the Green Bay Packers’ non-extension situation with head coach Matt LaFleur is not about their thoughts on him as a head coach; It’s about money. Schefter said at the time that he expects both LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst to be back in Green Bay next year.
I have been told by sources that Gutekunst’s job was never really on the line this year (I hadn’t gotten a clear word on LaFleur’s situation), but that the lack of an extension for Gutekunst was because of the perception of what an extension for one of the Packers’ key decision-makers meant without the other decision-maker receiving one too. ESPN’s Rob Demovsky has even reported that he believes that Green Bay’s general manager will gain even more power for the Packers next year, as he expects that the head coach will now have to report to the general manager, who would then report to new president/CEO Ed Policy, rather than the current structure where both the head coach and general manager report to the president independently.
On the money front, the Packers have generally been very, very (insert as many veries here as you want) cheap at the assistant coaching level, relying on internal development, but paying the head coach hasn’t really been an issue but one time when Mike McCarthy’s camp had it leak that he was interested in the Texas Longhorns job toward the end of the 2013 season. If you want to read some examples of the assistant pool being an issue, you can find them here. For now, we’ll keep this to LaFleur.
On Wednesday, Schefter spoke to ESPN Milwaukee about what’s going on in Green Bay right now. Schefter warned, “If they go on an extended playoff run, the price only goes up.”
When asked about whether he still believes that LaFleur will be the coach in 2026, he stated, “I think they absolutely want him back. Now the question is, how do they make that happen? It’s got to work for both sides. He wants to be back. They want him back. Can they figure it out?”
So, let’s talk about numbers. I was told by a source, an agent, that LaFleur’s first deal with the Packers was around $5 million per year, which now would be considered pretty low for just about any college program at the power four level, for what it’s worth. For example, Liberty, a program in the non-power conference Conference USA, is paying its coach that much this year and didn’t even compete in the league’s conference title game.
$5 million is a lot to me, a blogger. It’s not a lot for LaFleur, an NFL head coach.
I can’t nail down an exact number on what LaFleur is being paid now, but I’ve been told his most recent extension is probably less than double his initial salary, meaning that it’s under $10 million per year.
If it’s true that...
