WHAT STANDARD CONSISTENCY?

The Green Bay Packers will continue with the same management team going into the 2026 season.

Matt LaFleur and Brian Gutekunst are set to lead the Green Bay Packers for years to come.

After nearly a week of negotiations, the Packers signed LaFleur to a multi-year contract extension that will guarantee he won’t go into 2026 with just one year left on his deal. At the same time, the Packers were also close to completing a contract extension for Gutekunst.

PackersNews confirmed the status of both deals and learned that executive vice president/director of football operations Russ Ball would also receive a contract extension.

Terms of the deals were not available and it's unclear whether LaFleur and Gutekunst will have matching years on their contracts.

Apparently headquarters had been inclined to continue irrespective of how the wild card playoff game turned out.

According to a person familiar with the talks with LaFleur, Gutekunst and Ball, the Packers' front office structure is staying the same. All three men will report to President and CEO Ed Policy, who made the decision to extend each of the three men's contracts.

The structure has been in place since 2018 when then-President Mark Murphy decided that the general manager would not have total authority over the football operation as had been the case since general manager Ron Wolf was hired in 1992.

LaFleur’s future with the Packers seemed like it was in question after the Packers suffered an embarrassing wild-card playoff loss to the Chicago Bears on Jan. 10. It was the third time in the past four playoff appearances that the Packers bowed out of the playoffs in their first game.

However, according to a source with knowledge of the talks Policy had with his leadership, there was no hesitation about bringing LaFleur back. As NFL Network had reported prior to the Packers' playoff loss to the Chicago Bears, the final game would not have a bearing on LaFleur's future.

It appears Policy had already decided that LaFleur would remain as head coach provided the two were able to reach a contract agreement. Although it took a week to get the deal done, it appears that it was mostly because Policy had three contracts to negotiate and not because there was any hesitation from LaFleur or Policy.

The challenge is always whether the turmoil of a coaching change and subsequent rebuild (Admiral Gallery's description of a command change at sea being akin to removing one head and grafting on another applies to coaching changes, irrespective of whether it's an internal promotion or the coaching square dance) is worth doing.

Part of Policy's decision was whether seven years was enough time for LaFleur to lead the Packers to a Super Bowl. Despite a 76-40-1 regular-season record, LaFleur has gotten the team to the NFC championship game twice, but no further.

Policy decided the Packers could win a Super Bowl under LaFleur.

At the end of Coach LaFleur's second season, we noted,

Every so often, a team management does go all in on making a Super Bowl run, and Tampa might have done so making Tom Brady the de facto director of personnel, and perhaps that will work out for them (this year) and perhaps the reckoning with the salary cap and free agency will not haunt them for ten seasons.  On the other hand, how often might a management make a big splash on free agency only to wind up with an angry locker room and no playoff appearances to show for it?  We know what the standard is, and being regularly in the mix is a better sort of frustration than regularly being out of the mix.

The Tom Brady - Rob Gronkowski farewell tour ended with a championship in Tampa Bay, but has anyone heard from them lately?  Or would you rather be the Bears, still shuffling after forty years?  The Vikings, going zero-for-Bud Grant?  The Lions, still carrying the curse of Bobby Layne?

The standard is high in Green Bay.

Now it's time for the leadership in Green Bay to take the next step forward, after the Packers have been the No. 7 seed in the NFC playoffs for three consecutive years. Making the playoffs three years in a row is a good thing, but the Packers want to stop barely making it, and start contending for Super Bowls. The Packers think they have the right people in place to make progress toward that goal in 2026.

Packer spokesman Mike Spofford expands the case.

I understand the frustration of fans who wanted a change, and there are rational arguments. Two years ago the No. 7 seed was a legit achievement; the last two years, not so much. Didn't compete with the NFC's best teams last year, then too many giveaway losses this year. No division titles, or home playoff games, for four years. Three one-and-dones in the last four postseason appearances. Problems not getting fixed and questionable decisions. I get it all. I do. The one caveat in 2025 was the injuries. The Packers were 9-3-1, despite losing Tucker Kraft, Elgton Jenkins and Devonte Wyatt, before Micah Parsons and Zach Tom went down, and their absence made any kind of playoff run infinitely harder, even if they'd beaten the Bears last week. But ultimately, I think – and this is me talking, without any inside knowledge of anyone's thinking – it comes down to this: It's a quarterback-driven league, and what the Packers have with LaFleur and Jordan Love is vitally important to ANY level of success. LaFleur coached a declining Rodgers (2018 was abysmal, remember) to two more MVPs, managed the QB transition, has helped Love approach elite status with his arrow still pointing up, and has won (and nearly won) multiple games with Malik Willis. That type of coach/QB symbiosis is the best foundation the Packers could ask for and what other franchises dream of in this QB-dominant era, which is why LaFleur would've landed another head job within 48 hours if the Packers had moved on. That said, are there shortcomings and deficiencies? Yes, the end results say as much. So LaFleur must address those with changes to his staff, adjustments to training methods, and better gameday management so the team doesn't repeat losing "composure" or becoming "disheveled" in a do-or-die game. This past season ended like no other and must lead to a major re-examination of many issues touching the team, on top of the likely need for a new defensive coordinator again. Policy has put his faith in LaFleur to find those answers rather than disrupt an invaluable foundation. The expectations aren't changing, LaFleur knows it, and he wouldn't want them to.

It has been an interesting transition.  Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers might have been at odds in that "abysmal" 2018 season, and somehow Matt LaFleur and Aaron Rodgers had three first-round byes and two ultimately losing trips to the conference championship games as well as two late-career Most Valuable Player awards for Aaron Rodgers, and the 2022-2023 team might have given Jordan Love a few more snaps but for the Packers being in playoff contention right to a final home game loss to Detroit.  The following season, which was ostensibly for rebuilding, the Packers surprised both the Lions and Chiefs, made the playoff as a seventh seed, and dominated the wild-card game in Dallas before another nightmare trip to San Francisco, a place that also tripped up Mike Holmgren and Mike McCarthy more than once.  That might have led to higher expectations and fan frustration these past two seasons.

It appears, though, that the players and coaching staff are taking ownership of the mission.  Late game rallies by the opponents?  That happens, but you work to minimize them.  Home field advantage?  All time, the Packers are 20-7 at Milwaukee or Green Bay, with seven losses in fifteen games coming in the 21st century.  Let's see what transpires.