The Green Bay Packers will head into the playoffs this season in a position they know too well. Last season, they used the No. 7 seed to upset the Dallas Cowboys in the Wild Card round, only to get eliminated in the next round. Now, after a late-season collapse, they have found themselves in the same position again. So, when Packers legend LeRoy Butler examined the chances of them becoming a one-and-done team again, his words carried the weight of a warning for head coach Matt LaFleur.

“There is going to be a talk about that, and I think it’s fair because you’re a seven seed again,” LeRoy Butler said recently on the Up & Adams Show with Kay Adams. “You’ve lost consecutive games again, and people don’t really care about injuries anymore. Everybody has had injuries.”

“But for the most part, you would think you would be the team that you’re up 16 to six with five minutes to go, and the Denver Broncos, you’re up 23 to 14,” Butler continued. “If you think about it, had you won two of these games down the stretch, Kay, you would have won the division, but you lost the last two. So, at the end of the day, it is a clean slate in the playoffs.”

As LeRoy Butler pointed out, the Packers had multiple chances to lock up the NFC North. Yet they let late leads slip away and dropped games they should have finished. So now, instead of hosting a playoff game, the Packers will be traveling again. One of those turning points for the Packers came in Week 15, when they blew a nine-point second-half lead and lost 34-26 to the Denver Broncos. 

That Week 15 game started a frustrating domino effect for the Packers. In that matchup, right tackle Zach Tom went down with a knee injury in the first half. Soon after, wide receiver Christian Watson left with a chest injury. Then, the Packers’ defense took a major hit when defensive star Micah Parsons suffered a season-ending knee injury. The Packers then watched their four-game winning streak disappear, along with their grip on first place in the NFC North.

Things only got worse from there as injuries kept piling up in Green Bay. Matt LaFleur’s team’s regular season ended with a 9-7-1 record and four straight defeats. Still, LeRoy Butler made it clear that the NFL would not wait for the Packers to get healthy. 

Furthermore, even while acknowledging how young the Packers’ roster is and how little playoff experience some players have, Butler still believes this team has enough talent to get the job done. He even predicted a dominant 28-4 win for the Packers over the Chicago Bears in the Wild Card round. 

But while Green Bay’s late-season collapses remain a concern, another issue continues to frustrate fans. The strange handling of rookie wide receiver Matthew Golden in Matt LaFleur’s offense even invited scrutiny from LeRoy Butler.

LeRoy Butler questions Matt LaFleur’s offensive plan with Matthew Golden

When the Packers drafted Matthew Golden before this season, many expected him to bring explosiveness to the offense right away. But that hasn’t happened this season in Green Bay. Golden finished the regular season with just 29 catches for 361 yards in 14 games. So, recently, LeRoy Butler could not hide his confusion when he talked about Golden’s role in Matt LaFleur’s offense.

“The only way you can catch a fish, you gotta put a hook in the water, or you go to the store, but he [Golden] has not gotten opportunities,” LeRoy Butler said recently on the Up & Adams Show with Kay Adams. “I mean, you have to face facts that as soon as Christian Watson came back, Romeo Dobbs, Wicks, he [Golden] has not gotten the opportunity. And when he is out there, they just don’t use him.

“I mean, the guy [Golden] is a dynamic guy in space,” Butler added. “And then I think Stenovich, our offensive coordinator, basically said he’s [Golden] not going to be a factor, you know, in the playoffs. I don’t know if they’re just trying to trick people, but he has not gotten an opportunity.”

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Some fans hoped Matt LaFleur was hiding Matthew Golden as a surprise playoff weapon for January. But Stenavich made it clear that’s not happening. What makes this even more frustrating is that Golden already showed what he can do. In the games between Week 3 and Week 7, Golden caught 16 of 19 targets for 233 yards. In Week 6 against the Cincinnati Bengals, he even led the Packers with 86 receiving yards.

Then November hit, and wrist and shoulder issues sidelined the rookie WR for three of four games in Green Bay. So, when he came back, Golden could not reclaim his spot in the WR hierarchy in Green Bay. Even Matt LaFleur admitted on January 2 that those injuries slowed Golden’s development. Therefore, now, with the Packers heading into the playoffs, Golden cannot suddenly become a major part of the game plan.