The biggest question facing Matt LaFleur's offseason can't be answered until the season
There's nothing the Green Bay Packers head coach could tell us about Jonathan Gannon, Cam Achord, his new players, or the draft that would let us know the coach's biggest issue has been fixed.
Good morning!
Matt LaFleur will speak to the media for the first time since the end-of-season press conferences, which means it’ll be the first time we’ve heard from the Green Bay Packers head coach about losing Jeff Hafley, hiring Jonathan Gannon, Rich Bisaccia’s abrupt departure, and the hiring of Cam Achord.
None of that will get to the heart of the biggest question facing the coach, though: How will he prevent 2026 from ending the same way as 2025? And no answer he gives now will prove anything. Today’s Free Monday newsletter digs in.
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Nothing Matt LaFleur says right now matters all that much
Peter Bukowski: There will no doubt be breathless coverage of whatever Matt LaFleur says next. His thoughts on what Cam Achord brings to the Packers’ special teams. How Green Bay’s defense manages the loss of Jeff Hafley and adjusts to Jonathan Gannon’s scheme. Javon Hargrave and Benjamin St-Juste surely bring something needed to the team, and the Packers head coach will have illuminating things to say about that.
But none of it matters. Not really, anyway.
Because the only thing that matters is how LaFleur plans to ensure his team never blows a 21-3 halftime lead in the playoffs ever again. In fact, in eight games in which the Packers did not win (remember, they had a tie), this team had a fourth-quarter lead or tie in every game except against the Denver Broncos when Denver took the lead as the third quarter clock expired. The Packers immediately answered to make it a one-point game.
That means every single loss involved Green Bay blowing it somehow.
Special teams biffed it against the Cleveland Browns after the offense had no answers for Cleveland’s defensive front, a fitting harbinger for how the season would end when special teams biffed it after the offense had no answers for Chicago’s defensive front (and blitzes).
Changing the special teams coach will likely help some of the issues, as the kicking game also cost the Packers a win in Dallas, thanks to a blocked extra point returned for two.
If the Packers never have a kick blocked, they probably win two more games, end up playing their starters in the final week of the season, and host the Wild Card game instead of going on the road. That’s even with injuries to Tucker Kraft, Micah Parsons, and Zach Tom. And that doesn’t even account for the botched onside kick by Romeo Doubs, which clearly should have been another win, a potential signature victory for LaFleur with Malik Willis filling in for Jordan Love.
Instead, special teams gakked it again.
But the flailing special teams doesn’t account for the busted coverages against the Broncos or the Bears. It doesn’t help a team that has too often looked more worried about losing than it was intent on winning.
And nothing LaFleur can say right now will fix it. Or, at least, nothing he can say will convince us he’s fixed it. Because there aren’t words for it. He can’t talk his way through this one. The team played down to its reputation with the most cynical fanbase, that this team is a reflection of its head coach’s well-manicured facial hair: soft.
It’s possible LaFleur believes hiring Gannon and Achord will upgrade the Packers team, allowing them to avoid the same inglorious fate. Hafley has, notably, escaped much criticism for his defense utterly imploding in the second half of a playoff game against the team’s oldest rival with the chirpiest fanbase.
Whether he does or doesn’t won’t matter, though. All that matters is whether it happens. LaFleur needs some luck, needs his best players to be healthy in the playoffs when it matters. The two teams playing in the Super Bowl most years are the teams that stay the healthiest at their key spots. Those pointing to the 2010 Packers always elide that the myriad players on IR were linebackers and safeties, not star pass rushers or Pro Bowl tackles in their primes.
Of course, LaFleur can’t use that excuse. They had enough to beat the Bears and couldn’t do it. Twice.
They choked. Twice.
As Chicago’s preening new head coach daydreamed about shirtless celebrations and taking shots at the Packers.
And the worst part? Now, LaFleur can’t even fire back. It would look like sour grapes and sore loser behavior. If he had something slick to say before the playoff game, that would have been the time, but now that Johnson stuffed him in a locker twice, it’s over until the pads come on again in 2026.
Use it. Remind the guys constantly, or never bring it up again, however you think it’ll best motivate your team. But you have to know that going in. Hopefully, that was a question Ed Policy asked before deciding on an extension for LaFleur in the offseason.
Oh yeah, there’s nothing LaFleur can say that will prove he’s worth that either. Just add it to the list of things he and the Packers can’t prove until next season. We’ll be waiting.