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GREEN BAY, Wis. \u2014 The Green Bay Packers backed up the Brinks truck for head coach Matt LaFleur after his seventh season in charge.<\/p>\n
In Ed Policy\u2019s first significant decision as team president, he signed LaFleur to a multiyear extension, multiple league sources told The Athletic<\/em>.<\/p>\n LaFleur, 46, had only the 2026 season remaining on his contract. Policy said last summer that he\u2019s generally opposed to lame-duck years, meaning he didn\u2019t want LaFleur coaching on an expiring contract. For intel on how and why Policy arrived at his decision, check out the story below.<\/p>\n There are sound arguments both for and against Policy\u2019s decision, but I think he made the right one.<\/p>\n Here are some reasons why:<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Quarterback is the sport\u2019s most important position, and LaFleur has proven to be the right offensive coach for the Packers\u2019 franchise arm.<\/p>\n Jordan Love is the guy. This season left no doubt. Love might have been an MVP finalist if the 27-year-old hadn\u2019t missed more than a game and a half with a concussion at the end of the season.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t want to disrupt the chemistry that Love and LaFleur have built over their three years working together as starter and head coach, especially given the trajectory into the NFL\u2019s elite tier of quarterbacks Love appears to be on \u2014 if he\u2019s not already there.<\/p>\n If anyone wanted LaFleur to prove his worth as an offensive mind and quarterback developer in the post-Aaron Rodgers era, he\u2019s done just that and then some (what he did with Malik Willis is a bonus). Over the last three seasons, Love ranks tied for fifth in expected points added per dropback, according to TruMedia, and the Packers rank eighth in offensive points scored per game.<\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> If not for a litany of significant injuries to vital players, LaFleur could very well still be coaching this season. General manager Brian Gutekunst said in the offseason that it was time for the Packers to compete for championships and they appeared on track to do just that.<\/p>\n Look, I get it, it\u2019s an excuse. Every team has injuries.<\/p>\n The San Francisco 49ers overcame significant ones to all-world defensive talents Nick Bosa and Fred Warner to make the divisional round. That\u2019s why Kyle Shanahan probably deserves NFL Coach of the Year, and defensive coordinator Robert Saleh might get another head-coaching job.<\/p>\n We shouldn\u2019t ding the Packers too much for what the 49ers managed, and Policy is well within reason to cut LaFleur some slack for this season\u2019s injuries. The Packers lost perhaps the NFL\u2019s best tight end in Week 9 to a torn ACL, their best defensive tackle in Week 13 to season-ending ankle and leg injuries, their best offensive lineman in Week 15 to a partially torn patellar tendon that ended up sidelining him for the season and maybe the NFL\u2019s second-best defensive player to a torn ACL in that same game.<\/p>\n \u201cI do think that things would be completely different if we had not lost him in the Broncos game,\u201d tight end Tucker Kraft said this week of first-team All-Pro defensive end Micah Parsons.<\/p>\n That wounded group doesn\u2019t even include Elgton Jenkins, the Packers\u2019 longest-tenured offensive lineman and starting center, who suffered a season-ending leg injury in Week 10.<\/p>\n Packers president and CEO Ed Policy has put his faith in Matt LaFleur to get the team back to the Super Bowl. (Sarah Kloepping \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n 3.<\/strong> There has to be at least some value in what players think, especially guys like Parsons, Love, Kraft, safety Xavier McKinney and running back Josh Jacobs. Those aren\u2019t just great football players. They are the heartbeat of the locker room, whom other players look up to, and guys who don\u2019t seem like they\u2019d be content with a country club head coach.<\/p>\n Policy was always going to do what he thought was best for the organization, but the opinions of those five players, in particular, should carry weight, no matter the decision. Not only to prevent potentially losing the locker room, but also because those might be the top five players to follow when seeking a Super Bowl culture.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a quick snippet from each player on LaFleur from the past week:<\/p>\n Kraft:<\/strong> \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s another coach who can come in and do it as well as he does it, especially with the complexities that are in this offense. \u2026 I think Matt\u2019s an outstanding head coach. There\u2019s no doubt in my mind that he\u2019ll remain here as a Packer. I think a lot of that talk is pretty silly.\u201d<\/p>\n Jacobs:<\/strong> \u201cI think he\u2019s become a great leader since I\u2019ve been here. I think that he cares a lot about this program. \u2026 I know what he means to the players. Speaking for myself, I\u2019m gonna stay firm on wanting him to be the head coach and wanting them to figure something out with him.\u201d<\/p>\n Parsons:<\/strong> \u201cI reached out to him when I started seeing this, and I said, \u2018Man, when I agreed to come here, you were part of the reason why I came here. I want you a part of this and I love you and I think you\u2019re a great coach.’\u201d<\/p>\n McKinney:<\/strong> \u201cHe puts us in a good spot to be able to go out there and be victorious every week. That\u2019s all we could really ask for from a player standpoint, so that\u2019s why I feel like he should still be the head coach. I don\u2019t think that we should move on from him. \u2026 I think he still did a hell of a job this year with us, with the team, despite the adversities that we face throughout the year.\u201d<\/p>\n Love:<\/strong> \u201cI definitely think Matt should be the head coach. I\u2019ve got a lot of love for Matt, and I think he does a good job. And that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, for anyone skeptical of or outright opposed to Policy giving LaFleur that much money or extending him at all, I understand your perspective, too.<\/p>\n For starters, the blown leads this season were inexcusable. The Packers led the Cleveland Browns by 10 with less than four minutes remaining, the Dallas Cowboys by 13 in the second quarter, the Denver Broncos by nine in the third quarter, the Chicago Bears by 10 with less than three minutes remaining in Week 16 and the Bears again by 18 in the third quarter of the wild-card round.<\/p>\n Green Bay didn\u2019t win any of those games. Whether entirely fair or not, shouldering the blame after games like those is part of what a head coach signs up for.<\/p>\n One of the most alarming reflections of LaFleur this season was the team\u2019s widespread lack of composure amid the second-half playoff collapse in Chicago. LaFleur himself used the word \u201cdisheveled\u201d to describe his team. Having the wrong number of players on the field multiple times. Your No. 1 cornerback jumping on top of a pile for a boneheaded 15-yard penalty. Committing a delay-of-game penalty out of a timeout. Blowing assignments in pass protection and pass coverage.<\/p>\n Yes, those are on the players, too. However, what does it say about the head coach when his team so woefully crumbles in pressure-packed moments? The playoff catastrophe was hardly the first time that happened.<\/p>\n LaFleur was never able to pick his team up off the mat after the Week 15 disaster in Denver. Losing a nine-point lead in an eventual eight-point defeat was a body blow. Losing Parsons for the season was a knockout punch the Packers never woke up from. The first collapse in Chicago came next, then humiliation at home against running back Derrick Henry and the Baltimore Ravens. Then, after a quasi-preseason game in Week 18, the Packers wilted at Soldier Field once again.<\/p>\n After each game \u2014 Denver, Chicago (Part 1) and Baltimore \u2014 LaFleur and the Packers had a chance to prove their mettle. To fight back against the uppercuts that stretch dealt. To resuscitate a season that had every right to fade away. Instead, that\u2019s precisely what it did. And if you wanted LaFleur gone because of how this season ended, or because the Packers haven\u2019t made the NFC Championship Game in five years, or because they haven\u2019t hosted a playoff game in four, or because they\u2019ve been the No. 7 seed for three straight, you\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for you, though, he\u2019s not going anywhere. And once cooler heads prevail, perhaps Policy\u2019s decision to extend LaFleur will make more sense.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a convincing case to be made, and one that I subscribe to, that LaFleur is still the right coach for the Packers, one capable of leading them to a ring. Heck, if Parsons doesn\u2019t blow his knee out \u2014 even if Kraft, Zach Tom, Devonte Wyatt and Jenkins are still done for the season \u2014 LaFleur might\u2019ve been coaching in a Super Bowl next month.<\/p>\n However, he\u2019s not, and now it\u2019s time for the newly extended head coach to back up these dollar signs and lead the Packers to one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Can LaFleur lead the Packers to a Super Bowl after earning a contract extension from first-year team president Ed Policy?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[48,18],"class_list":["post-41948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-green-bay-packers","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-nfl"],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n![\"Packers](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/01\/16142614\/USATSI_26712266-scaled.jpg\")
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