New Green Bay Packers President and CEO Ed Policy will continue Mark Murphy’s monthly column where fans can ask him questions about the team. Policy January’s post begins like this:
It’s hard to believe it’s already 2026 and the regular season is coming to an end. It feels like just yesterday we were starting training camp and our guys were riding their bikes through the streets. We are now 9-6-1 with a conference game left and a playoff berth secured.
Adversity is a constant in national football, and I am extremely proud of how our team has responded to many challenges. We didn’t perform well in the league last season and this year we improved to 4 wins and 1 loss. We persevered through a series of injuries and a very challenging schedule and put ourselves in position to compete for our ultimate goal: a Super Bowl championship.
Here’s why this matters: The policy of not opting to extend the tenures of head coach Matt LaFleur or general manager Brian Gutekunst this offseason has somewhat fueled a Super Bowl or bust mentality among Packers fans — a mentality that has only added fuel to the fire following the Micah Parsons trade.
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But judging by the wording of the policy here, it does appear that his criteria will be the team’s standing in the NFC North and making the playoffs in 2025. To be fair, achieving those goals with 15 players injured is no easy task. In Week 18 alone, the Packers had to make 21 roster moves before fielding a roster in the no-stakes regular-season finale.
Ultimately, I think the team will bring back LaFleur and Gutekunst, although I’m not sure if LaFleur will get a multi-year extension, and I’m not sure if LaFleur will accept a short-term extension. According to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, it is expected that starting next offseason, head coaches will begin reporting directly to the general manager, instead of the head coach and general manager reporting to the president/CEO respectively. In short, general managers will have more power in 2026.
If you look at the deluge of rumor-mongering articles circulating around the league this week regarding the upcoming head coaching and general manager market, you won’t find LaFleur or Gutekunst’s names listed as favorites heading into Week 18. For the most part, the only ones slated to be fired at the head coaching level are Pete Carroll of the Las Vegas Raiders and Kevin Stefanski of the Cleveland Browns, who are coming off a 6-26 season in 2025. In the general manager’s mind, the guy most likely to be fired (if there’s another one this year) is Atlanta’s Terry Fontenot.
Still, Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley remains a popular head coaching candidate, while Packers vice president of player personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan is a front-runner for the general manager job. Both interviewed for those positions elsewhere last offseason.
