GREEN BAY, Wis. — Despite ending 2025 with five straight losses, including a wild-card collapse against the rival Chicago Bears, Ed Policy opted for stability and Matt LaFleur decided he had unfinished business. Thus, the Green Bay Packers’ president and their veteran head coach agreed to forge ahead with the hope that they will finally break through and get to a Super Bowl.
LaFleur, 46, will return as the Packers head coach, per sources. He signed a multiyear contract extension Saturday that a source said is “not a prove-it deal but a real commitment.” New deals for general manager Brian Gutekunst and vice president Russ Ball are also in the works.
In seven seasons as head coach, LaFleur has yet to lead the Packers to a Super Bowl. Five active head coaches have been with their team longer than LaFleur’s tenure in Green Bay — only one has not been to at least one Super Bowl (Buffalo Bills’ Sean McDermott).
LaFleur has had his share of chances. The Packers have reached the playoffs in six of his seven seasons, including the past three. However, he has not presided over an NFC North title since 2021 and has not been to an NFC Championship Game since his first two seasons (2019-20).
Only one coach in NFL history reached the Super Bowl for the first time after his seventh season with the same team: John Madden, who took the Raiders there in his eighth season. Tom Landry went to his first Super Bowl in his 11th season with the Dallas Cowboys, but the Super Bowl had existed for only five years at that point. Before that, Landry failed to reach an NFL Championship Game in his first six years.
There is little historical precedent to think that a coach who has been on the job as long as LaFluer will suddenly find a way. After several postseason losses in recent years that could have easily gone the Packers’ way — including the 31-27 setback to the Bears — it’s fair to wonder whether it will ever happen for LaFleur’s Packers.
Against Chicago, the Packers blew a 21-3 halftime lead, allowed the Bears to score 25 points in the fourth quarter and had numerous gaffes that burned them.
Among those were going three-and-out on three of the first four second-half possessions (with LaFleur calling plays); a delay of game penalty in the fourth quarter after burning a timeout; using another fourth-quarter timeout when they had only 10 defensive players on the field; trying to defend the Bears’ last extra point with only 10 players; and kicker Brandon McManus leaving seven points off the board with three missed kicks (two field goals and an extra point).
This all occurred after the Packers’ 22-16 overtime meltdown against the Bears two weeks earlier, which cost them a shot at the NFC North title.
Among the Packers’ other blown chances to advance in the playoffs under LaFleur: the 2020 NFC title game loss in which LaFleur opted to kick a 26-yard field goal down eight points with 2:09 left against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tom Brady and then never got the ball back; the 2021 divisional-round 13-10 defeat in which the San Francisco 49ers’ only touchdown came off a blocked punt; and the 2023 divisional round 24-21 loss to the 49ers, which included a fourth-quarter missed field goal and Jordan Love being intercepted on the final drive.
Even with all that, there is a case for stability — one made recently by former Packers coach Mike Holmgren. In an interview with ESPN for a story about whether Love was ready to lead the Packers to a Super Bowl, Holmgren expressed optimism because of LaFleur.
“If Love can stay with the same system and same coach for a while, that helps,” Holmgren said. “That really helps. LaFleur and those guys there right now are doing a good job. They’re consistent, they’ve been there a while. So he’s in a good spot.”
Also, it appears LaFleur never lost the trust of his players.
Edge rusher Micah Parsons, who was acquired from the Cowboys just before the season, gave perhaps the strongest support for LaFleur two days after the season, when he said LaFleur was one of the reasons he wanted to come to Green Bay.
“You can get spoiled with a good coach and good people, and you don’t realize until they’re gone, and I don’t want to be at that point where we realize like, ‘Damn, we let such a great coach go,'” Parsons said.
It wasn’t only Parsons.
“Since Matt’s been here, how many times have we missed the playoffs, once?” cornerback Keisean Nixon said. “My first year here with [QB Aaron Rodgers].
“There’s not too many coaches who can just go out there and get that. I think Matt’s the perfect person for the job in Green Bay. He been here long enough. I don’t see another coach just coming in here and doing what Matt did, so I think Matt’s the [guy] for sure.”
Receiver Christian Watson believes LaFleur has built a championship-level culture.
“One hundred percent,” Watson said. “I think it takes everybody in the room. I think it’s easy to blame one guy when stuff doesn’t go the right way over a period of time, but there’s a lot of people that make this thing go, so I think it’s hard to point fingers at one person. I think we all have some accountability that we have to take for our faults as a team.
“I think he’s done a great job at trying to push people along that way. We’ve got to find a way to be better.”
