Regardless of Saturday's Outcome, Packers Should Extend LaFleur

The Green Bay Packers' season isn't over yet, with the Chicago Bears on the schedule tomorrow night for the Wildcard round of the NFL playoffs. However, based on the speculation surrounding Head Coach Matt LaFleur's future, I think it would be possible to think that wasn't the case.

At minimum, there seem to be a lot of talking heads out there who think his tenure in Green Bay will be done if the Packers lose to their division rivals, giving the team an opportunity to hire recently fired John Harbaugh as their new coach. While I won't pretend to know enough about the team's inner thoughts and discussions, I think that would be a mistake.

Look, I'm not going to lie and say I haven't had my doubts about LaFleur too but, while there have been plenty of times when I've disagreed with a play call or the decision to use (or not use) a challenge flag, it is hard to overlook the fact he is a winning football coach.

His first three years, paired with quarterback Aaron Rodgers made him look like a coach who would have a Super Bowl ring by now. Since then, the numbers have dropped but LaFleur has shown he doesn't need a veteran passer or even veteran team to win.

Green Bay has had the youngest roster in the NFL for three straight seasons. Their current active roster has 33 players who started the 2025 season with 3 years of experience or less (the Bears, in comparison, have only 18) while kicker Brandon McManus was the only player to start 2025 with more than 7 years of experience (the Bears have 9 players that fit that description).

Despite the youth and inexperience, LaFleur has a 29-21-1 record and three playoff appearances in that three-year span with a quarterback who has just 48 career regular season starts heading into Saturday. He did this while coaching in a competitive division that has had all four teams make the playoffs at least once in those three years.

If you expand it out to his full seven-year Green Bay coaching career, LaFleur has six playoff appearances and just one losing season (2022).  

It's a resume that is missing a Super Bowl ring but would easily have him in high demand if the Packers were to part ways. It would be a major gamble to move on from LaFleur when there are very few candidates with better credentials.

For the record, I think the Packers, who were a muffed onside kick away from going 2-0 against the Bears in the regular season, will win tomorrow, making this a moot point. However, regardless of the outcome, I hope Green Bay realizes they have a coach who deserves a new contract.