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CHEESEHEAD TV
By: JosephR
Pressure Makes Diamonds, It’ll Make Matt LaFleur
It’s the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs, and Green Bay fans nationwide are haunted by what should have been a trip to Seattle, conjoined with the incessant taunting of Bears fans who not only stole the NFC North Crown, but also dashed the Packers’ Super Bowl hopes after being on the ropes at halftime 21-3, to come back and win 31-27. Many placed the blame on the second-half collapse squarely on Head Coach Matt LaFleur, after a pedestrian second-half game plan when the Packers had the Bears set up for the knockout blow. What probably makes this playoff loss sting even more is that we’ve seen this before. The Browns, the Panthers, the Eagles, the Broncos… all winnable games until the Packers decided to take their foot off the opponent’s neck.
Were there injuries along the way? Sure. Losing Micah Parsons, Devonte Wyatt, Tucker Kraft, and others down the stretch will certainly set you back. But injuries are a part of the game, and most of the losses were by one possession, and many of us can recall multiple drives where the Packers just put it in neutral offensively, hoping the defense would hold up and salt away a victory. But this is the NFL, where giants are slain by underdogs week in and week out. A game plan where you score two or three touchdowns and then try to run out the clock is almost assuredly a recipe for disaster if the opposition gets too many second chances.
And in the 4th quarter of that wildcard defeat, LaFleur suddenly had an epiphany that he had to coach for 60 minutes to win a football game in order to advance, not just 30. Unfortunately, he came to that realization too late, and with the Bears at home with the wind figuratively and literally on their backs, scratched out a last-minute win.
We’ve seen LaFleur coach 60 minutes before, we saw him do it twice to sweep the Lions, we saw it in Dallas which unfortunately ended in a tie when the Packers didn’t have an adequate replacement for Wyatt, we saw it in Arizona when Jacoby Brissett looked liked an All-Pro, and we saw it in Pittsburgh when the Packers met up with their old friend Aaron Rodgers.
Let’s hope this most recent lesson finally stuck, because it had yet to fully sink in all season, and much to the chagrin of some Packers fans, LaFleur inked up a “multi-year extension” today. Let’s unpack that for a second.
For me, “multi-year” means three. LaFleur had one year remaining on his current deal, so let’s expect to see LaFleur on the sidelines til 2030; 2031 at the latest.
In 2030, Jordan Love will be 32. Micah Parsons will be 31, Tucker Kraft will be 30, Devovnte Wyatt will be 32, Zach Tom will be 31, Christian Watson will be 31, Xavier McKinney will be 32, Edgerrin Cooper will be 29, and Matthew Golden will be 27.
In other words, the Packers’ “young core” won’t be so young anymore, but wily and aging veterans.
General Manager Brian Gutekunst and Director of Football Operations Russ Ball, who are both receiving extensions, too, have done a pretty good job at constructing this team. They’ve had some whiffs, of course, but what front office hasn’t?
Team President and CEO Ed Policy, who is still somewhat of an unknown at this juncture, is probably willing to play the long game, given the Packers should still be contenders next season, but the question is for how long? Policy will be 60 in 2030, and the Packers took eight years to get to this point. So if LaFleur can’t get it right by then, Policy has a chance to hit the nuclear button and try to make a run at a title before he hits mandatory retirement in 2040 at age 70 (technically 2039 as his birthday is October 6th).
So the pressure is on for LaFleur in 2026. He’s likely forced to hire a new defensive coordinator, as Jeff Hafley is all but assured the Dolphins job, given the former Packers’ Vice President of Player Personnel is their new General Manager. He still doesn’t have an offensive coordinator (yea Stenavich I said it), and that’s likely due to his unwillingness to give up playcalling duties, which could spiral if LaFleur goes back into his shell again during games the Packers should win but inexplicably lose. You’ve probably already heard the Packers don’t like to spend too much on their coaching staffs, which explains why there will likely never be a “LaFleur Coaching Tree”, but the Packers could save a few dollars by letting Rich Bisaccia go in favor of hiring some up-and-coming talent on both sides of the ball in addition to their needing a new special teams coordinator.
The man really has a lot on his plate right now, but what’s so amazing is that it’s all very doable. He just has to want to make the necessary changes, which he hasn’t necessarily shown until he faced elimination in the playoffs last week and was ultimately bounced to the couch.
We know LaFleur isn’t coaching for his job right now, but that extension he just earned has a very real end date. With no NFC Championship appearances since 2020, and two back-to-back wild card exits, the pressure is on for LaFleur to produce. The fanbase is frustrated, and while Policy is committed to him, there’s certainly no guarantee of a second extension without results.
The pressure is on, but fortunately for LaFleur, that seems to be when we get the very best out of him. Rise to the occasion coach, all gas, no brake.
