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It\u2019s been 27 years since the Green Bay Packers had a playoff game, then began a coaching search just days later.<\/p>\n
That was back in 1998, when the Packers lost to San Francisco in the wild card round, then watched as coach Mike Holmgren bolted for Seattle.<\/p>\n
Green Bay could be in a similar situation in a couple of weeks.<\/p>\n
The Packers have clinched a playoff spot, where they\u2019ll be the NFC\u2019s No. 7 seed for a third straight year. But head coach Matt LaFleur appears far from safe.<\/p>\n
The Packers have lost three straight games \u2014 including an\u00a0embarrassing 41-24 beatdown by Baltimore Saturday\u00a0\u2014 and have plummeted from the conference\u2019s No. 2 seed earlier this month to the final playoff spot today. That means LaFleur, who would be entering the final year of his contract in 2026, could be coaching for his job the next few weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in such a result-oriented business,\u201d LaFleur said after the Baltimore loss. \u201cIt felt like we had a pretty good week of practice, but when you come out here and you put on a performance like that it doesn\u2019t necessarily feel that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the second straight year, Green Bay is fading to black as the postseason nears. And that could lead new team president Ed Policy to make changes.<\/p>\n
A year ago, the Packers started 11-4, lost their final two regular season games, then fell to Philadelphia, 22-10, in the Wild Card round.<\/p>\n
This season, Green Bay was 9-3-1 after defeating Chicago on Dec. 7, but has suffered three straight losses. The Packers\u00a0lost a nine-point second half lead to Denver,\u00a0had a\u00a0collapse of epic proportions against Chicago\u00a0in Week 16, then were thoroughly dominated by Baltimore.<\/p>\n
LaFleur\u2019s future, which seemed relatively secure three short weeks ago, is suddenly up in the air.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think sitting here it\u2019s embarrassing having the opponent coming into our house and the way they were celebrating and talking to us and just feeling the complacency and the energy on the sideline,\u201d Green Bay defensive end Lukas Van Ness said. \u201cFrankly, it\u2019s unacceptable. Starting with myself, the defense and honestly all three phases. At this point of the season, we gotta find a way to play collective and be better. Definitely embarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Packers safety Evan Williams agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like we were dominated,\u201d Green Bay safety Evan Williams said of the loss to Baltimore. \u201cIt was truly pretty embarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s problematic for LaFleur.<\/p>\n
Back in June, Policy said he wasn\u2019t ready to offer extensions to LaFleur \u2014 or general manager Brian Gutekunst \u2014 before the 2025 campaign began. He also said he doesn’t believe a coach or general manager should go into the final year of their contracts without a new deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat creates a lot of issues,\u201d Policy said. \u201cI think normally you have a pretty good idea of where that relationship is going when you have two years left \u2014 not always, but normally.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think generally speaking I would avoid lame-duck status. It’s oftentimes difficult on everybody involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
That meant 2025 is \u2014 and always has been \u2014 a \u201cprove it\u201d year.<\/p>\n
While both Gutekunst and LaFleur could certainly be jettisoned if the bottom continues to fall out, Gutekunst is probably the safer of the two men to survive.<\/p>\n
Gutekunst inherited a mess when he took over for former general manager Ted Thompson in Jan., 2018. The Packers had an aging roster, salary cap issues and were coming off their first losing season in nine years.<\/p>\n
Since then, Gutekunst has led the Packers to an 82-48-2 record (.629), six playoff appearances in eight years, and two appearances in the NFC Championship Game.<\/p>\n
The majority of Gutekunst\u2019s big ticket free agents such as Josh Jacobs, Xavier McKinney, Preston Smith, Za\u2019Darius Smith and Adrian Amos have been terrific signings. He had the guts to select quarterback Jordan Love and move on from future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers.<\/p>\n
Gutekunst made one of the NFL\u2019s best trades in years when he acquired defensive end Micah Parsons from Dallas in August. And Gutekunst\u2019s roster was widely regarded as one of the NFL\u2019s best entering 2025.<\/p>\n
Meantime,\u00a0LaFleur\u2019s stock has dropped in recent years.<\/p>\n
LaFleur led the Packers to a 39-10 overall record his first three years in Green Bay (2019-2021), highlighted by trips to the NFC Championship Game in both 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n
Green Bay has gone 37-29-1, though, the last four seasons (.560).<\/p>\n
The Packers are 1-3 in the postseason since reaching the NFC Championship Game in 2020, and LaFleur\u2019s overall playoff record is 3-5. Green Bay has also gone four straight seasons without winning the division, its longest drought in 24 years.<\/p>\n
LaFleur is about to wrap up his seventh season in Green Bay, and here\u2019s a sobering thought for Packer Nation.<\/p>\n
There have been 35 head coaches that won a Super Bowl since the big game debuted on Jan. 15, 1967. Just four of those 35 coaches won Super Bowls after their seventh season with that organization \u2014 Oakland\u2019s John Madden, Kansas City\u2019s Hank Stram, Tom Landry of Dallas and Pittsburgh\u2019s Bill Cowher.<\/p>\n
In essence,\u00a0if you don’t win big early, odds are you probably never will.<\/p>\n
The coaches that won a Super Bowl after Year 7 \u2014 Madden, Stram, Landry and Cowher \u2014 are all in the Pro Football Hall of Fame today. LaFleur, on the other hand, would need a ticket to visit Canton, Ohio.<\/p>\n
No one knows what Policy is thinking. Green Bay\u2019s new president hasn\u2019t publicly commented on LaFleur\u2019s future since June, and what\u2019s followed has been a somewhat disappointing season.<\/p>\n
The Packers entered the year with the second-best odds of winning the NFC behind defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia. Instead, Green Bay is the No. 7 seed for a third straight year.<\/p>\n
Many will say injuries to players like Parsons, tight end Tucker Kraft, center Elgton Jenkins and defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt have derailed the season. But according to a study done by Sportsinfosolutions.com, Green Bay was 14th<\/sup>\u00a0in games missed due to injury (200) through Week 16.<\/p>\n Chicago, which won the NFC North, had the most missed games (299). Buffalo, one of the frontrunners to win the AFC, was third in games missed with 261, while San Francisco \u2014 one of the NFC favorites \u2014 was sixth with 238 games missed.<\/p>\n In essence, the injury excuse doesn\u2019t hold water. Injuries are simply part of the deal in the NFL, and the Packers haven\u2019t had it any better or worse than the rest of the league in 2025.<\/p>\n LaFleur can certainly end all the talk about his future with a deep postseason run. If Green Bay loses its opening playoff game for the third time since 2021, though, LaFleur might want to have his realtor on speed dial.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we all gotta look in the mirror,\u201d running back Josh Jacobs said. \u201cI mean, from the top down, coaches included.\u201d<\/p>\n Actually, it\u2019s coaches first \u2014 starting with the head man himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-green-bay-packers"],"yoast_head":"\n