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- The Green Bay Packers are likely discussing how to move forward with coach Matt LaFleur after a disappointing playoff loss.
- Players’ comments after the season-ending loss to the Bears suggest a need for a culture change within the team.
- Coaching decisions, such as failing to exploit matchups and a lack of accountability, were issues in the playoff game.
GREEN BAY – If the Green Bay Packers are going to run it back with Matt LaFleur, they will need to make a hard turn away from being a team that lets things happen to a team that makes things happen.
The longer it takes for white smoke to arise from the smoke stack in president Ed Policy’s office, the more it’s likely LaFleur will return. It’s four days since the season ended at Soldier Field and LaFleur hasn’t been fired, so it’s obvious the two sides are discussing ways to move forward together.
LaFleur has one year left on his contract and the Packers probably are ready to add a year onto the deal – just like they do with their assistant coaches after every season – but not much more after his team bowed out in the first round of the playoffs for the third time in four tries.
The way the 2025 season ended was an embarrassment and if Policy and general manager Brian Gutekunst weren’t listening to comments from players like linebacker Quay Walker, running back Josh Jacobs and safety Javon Bullard after the 31-27 wild-card playoff loss to the Chicago Bears, then they’ve got their heads buried in the sand.
Their comments weren’t about LaFleur specifically, but they were aimed at the culture throughout the building, for which LaFleur is responsible. The Packers aren’t finishers and the way they crumbled in the two losses to the Bears at the end of the season says It all.
As Bullard commented on the day players cleared out their lockers, and Walker and Jacobs intimated after the game, the Packers aren’t finishers.
“There’s two people, one guy that’s gonna keep their foot on their neck and keep talk s—,” Bullard said. “The other guy’s going to put him out while he’s down there. We have to be that team that’s going to put people out when they’re down there.”
LaFleur can’t be somebody he’s not. So, if Policy sticks with LaFleur for an eighth season, the discussion must be, how do the Packers change the culture? What is it that continually has them on their heels at the end of games and why aren’t they playing their best football at the end of each season?
They should start with an honest analysis about where the coaching staff failed.
Here are a few places they could start:
They completely blew it when it came to Jordan Morgan’s second season
The coaching staff wasn’t wrong to give 2024 first-round draft pick Jordan Morgan a look at right guard, but there was no reason for them to ignore the possibility he could beat out Rasheed Walker at left tackle.
Morgan wasted time in training camp learning a position he wasn’t equipped to play and missing out on valuable reps at a position he was. Instead of giving rookie Anthony Belton most of his snaps at right guard behind Sean Rhyan, they moved him around and didn’t figure out he was the best option at right guard until forced to play him in Week 13.
Morgan eventually got benched because he wasn’t playing well at right guard and sat for three weeks at a point in the season where he should have been peaking. He finally got back on the field when right tackle Zach Tom hurt his knee and started to play well down the stretch.
In fact, he was arguably their best lineman the final two weeks of the season. In the meantime, Walker showed his true colors and played awfully in the wild-card loss to the Bears. Any team wanting to sign him in free agency should look at that film.
The failure to develop Morgan and Belton, the unexplicably bad play of free agent Aaron Banks and the questionable faith in Walker shows how badly LaFleur needs a veteran line coach who has a track record of developing players.
The way the line completely botched the blitzes the Bears sent at them in the second half is another reason.
Bears understand the game is about matchups, Packers not as much
It’s OK to say that players, not coaches, win games. But coaches can make a big difference, especially when it comes to putting players in position to win games.
Bears coach Ben Johnson was a master at that in the wild-card game.
As soon at linebacker Edgerrin Cooper left with an injury, Johnson went after linebacker Isaiah McDuffie, who was playing a foreign position when in the base defense. Johnson kept finding ways to get tight end Colston Loveland matched up with the Packers linebackers and it paid huge dividends in the fourth quarter.
Johnson also set up cornerback Carrington Valentine on the game-winning touchdown. Knowing Valentine had not been aggressive enough in making tackles on bubble screens, he faked a bubble screen to his side and had receiver DJ Moore act like he was blocking.
Valentine bit hard on the fake and Moore ran past him for a 25-yard touchdown. It’s likely a veteran such as Trevon Diggs would not have bit on that fake but defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley played him only one snap. It was almost like he was afraid to do something bold like play Diggs.
LaFleur didn’t bench Keisean Nixon after his ridiculous penalty for jumping on the pile that cost the Packers 15 yards or after he stood like a statue and then jumped out of the way as running back D’Andre Swift ran into the end zone for a 6-yard touchdown.
That is an example of a lack of accountability.
Going back to matchups, LaFleur had Matthew Golden matched up with hobbled corner Nashon Wright on third down with 3 minutes to go. Romeo Doubs was on the other side with Jaylon Johnson. Which is the better matchup?
Golden ran past Wright and was open in the end zone. Doubs ended up being covered and the ball was thrown over his head out of bounds. Matchups matter and it seems like the Packers would rather have the defense dictate where they throw the ball instead of exploiting matchups.
How did Matthew Golden’s talents get lost during the season?
Yes, Golden went through some injuries that slowed him, but the Packers spent way too much time leaning on Dontayvion Wicks and Bo Melton when they should have been all-in on Golden.
Anyone who can make a catch-and-run like Golden did on his 23-yard touchdown against the Bears deserved to see the ball a lot more. Sometimes LaFleur and his staff defer to veterans too much. Golden was fast-tracked during training camp and then forgotten as soon as the season started.
The Packers saw right away what kind of hands Golden had. And they knew he’d have to go through some growing pains. But with Christian Watson on the physically-unable-to-perform list, they never developed him the way they should have. It’s another miscalculation that affected them late in the season.
Not finding a way to use Malik Willis on offense was bewildering
Even if Willis couldn’t run with the ball because of a hamstring injury, the threat of him being on the field should have been used.
If the Packers had found a way to incorporate him in some plays earlier in the season, the Bears would have had to at least prepare for him. At the very least, LaFleur could have put him on the field with Love and used him as a decoy.
It couldn’t have been any worse than some of the failed receiver screens and end arounds LaFleur used too often. Willis could have set up for a fake toss from Love and taken a defender or two with him.
It would have been one way to get the Bears to back off all the blitzing they were doing in the second half. It was a case of LaFleur not using all the options available to him in a nothing-to-lose situation.
The LaFleur situation should be settled soon. If it turns out he’s coming back, the 2025 season should serve as a manual for all the things that need to be fixed. These are only a few of the topics that need to be discussed, but they represent a part of the big picture.
