Matt LaFleur Job Security Hot Seat Packers News
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Packers head coach Matt LaFleur.
Questions about head coach Matt LaFleur’s job security have begun to swirl following the Green Bay Packers’ second straight loss on Monday night.
Don’t expect the seventh-year head coach to start mashing the panic button, though.
Following Monday night’s 10-7 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman directly asked LaFleur whether he feels like he is coaching for his job at this point in the season, especially without a long-term contract extension in place.
LaFleur has guided the Packers to the playoffs in five of their last six seasons and to 76 regular-season wins since he took the job in 2019, but his play-calling tendencies have also contributed to their somewhat stale 5-3-1 start to the 2025 season, disappointing the lofty expectations they set in the offseason to start “competing for championships.”
To his credit, though, LaFleur didn’t flinch or try to avoid the difficult question.
“I’ll leave that for everybody else to decide,” LaFleur answered in Sunday’s postgame. “I’ll just focus on the day-to-day and trying to do — 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’ve got to always be pushing. That’s just my mindset and that will be my mindset until they tell me not to coach anymore.”
Matt LaFleur Has Reached Critical Point with Packers
Before the season, LaFleur seemed a likely extension candidate for the Packers. He had posted a .670 win percentage over his first six seasons, made two trips to the NFC title game and seemed to have the offense on the up-and-up after coaching his way through the quarterback transition from four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love.
The words of Ed Policy, the team’s new president and CEO, loom large, though.
When he took over for Mark Murphy in the summer, Policy indicated 2025 would be a critical evaluation season for both LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst. Both men have two years left on their respective contracts, and Policy said he is “generally” against having either a head coach or a general manager in a lame-duck situation.
In other words, Policy seems to want to iron out their futures before the 2026 season.
“I think normally you have a pretty good idea of where that relationship is going when you have two years left,” Policy said. “Not always, but normally.”
With that in mind, LaFleur needs to be careful not to let the 2025 season slip away from him. He has an outstanding regular-season record with the Packers, but a deflating year can change minds, especially after the team made an all-in blockbuster trade for All-Pro pass rusher Micah Parsons — and agreed to pay him $188 million — to help the effort.
LaFleur’s seat is only just beginning to warm, but the clock is ticking.
Packers Have 5 Division Games Left to Right the Ship
The Packers may have lost a measuring-stick game against the NFC’s current top team, but they have more than enough time and opportunity to rebound into contenders.
While the Packers’ loss to the Eagles knocked them into third place in the NFC North behind the Detroit Lions (6-3) and Chicago Bears (6-3), they have remaining matchups in the division to re-establish their superiority over the division, incluidng both of their games against the Bears and the Minnesota Vikings (4-5). They are also already 1-0.
For whatever mistakes the Packers have made up to this point, they won’t matter in the long run if they can win the majority of their in-division games down the stretch. They won’t have the easiest time outside of the NFC North with remaining games against the Baltimore (4-5) and Denver (8-2), but the New York Giants (2-8) soften things a bit.
Winning even five of those games would put the Packers in a good position to claim one of the wild-card spots in the NFL postseason. And if the Packers can reach the playoffs, LaFleur will have the floor to state his case for a long-term contract extension.