After two straight home wins to start the season, the Packers looked to be squarely in the Super Bowl window. Now, after losing two straight home games (and scoring 20 total points in losses to the Panthers and Eagles), Green Bay may not make it to the postseason.
With eight games to play and a record of 5-3-1, is coach Matt LaFleur coaching for his job?
He was asked that question after Monday night’s 10-7 loss to the Eagles.
“I’ll leave that for everybody else to decide,” LaFleur said, via Matt Schneidman of TheAthletic.com. “I’ll just focus on the day-to-day. . . . I feel like you’re always coaching for everything in this league, you know? That’s just my mindset. It’s always been that way. You can’t ever exhale. You gotta always be pushing. That’s just my mindset and that will be my mindset ’til they tell me not to coach anymore.”
There’s one person with the ultimate power to make the decision. And new Packers president Ed Policy made it clear in June that, for both LaFleur and G.M. Brian Gutekunst, 2025 will be an important year.
Their contracts run through 2026. Policy said they would not get new deals until after the current season. Policy also downplayed the idea that either LaFleur or Gutekunst would work as lame ducks next year, saying such an approach “creates a lot of issues.”
So it likely will be either new deals or pink slips. In June, Policy said of LaFleur, Gutekunst, and director of football operations Russ Ball, “I love them. I trust them. I respect them.”
That’s the good news, for each of them. The bad news is that the Packers suddenly aren’t good enough, with an offense that lacks rhythm or punch or unpredictability. So, yes, the next eight games will be a factor in what happens next, especially if the Packers don’t happen to make it to the postseason for only the second time this decade.
