Shortly before taking over as president of the Green Bay Packers, Ed Policy made his stance clear: he wasn’t a fan of coaches or general managers heading into the final year of their contracts. Fast forward to now, and Policy has followed through. With Matt LaFleur entering the last year of his deal after a brutal Wild Card loss to the Chicago Bears, the Packers opted to extend their head coach.

“The Green Bay Packers yesterday agreed to terms with their coach Matt LaFleur on a well-deserved extension,” NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said on NFL Game Day. “And if this sounds a little familiar, we told you a couple of weeks ago that this was the Packers’ plan going into the playoffs: Make sure that Matt LaFleur knew how much they appreciated him and believed him, and keeping him their coach would be their number one priority. That happened yesterday.”

The extension has drawn mixed reactions, and the skepticism is understandable. LaFleur hasn’t been a bad head coach, at least not from September through December. In fact, he’s been excellent in the regular season. Across seven seasons, he’s posted a 76–40–1 record. The problem arises when the calendar flips to January.

LaFleur reached the NFC Championship Game in each of his first two seasons, losing both. Since then, the postseason results have taken a turn for the worse. He’s gone 1–5 in his last six playoff games and sits at 3–6 overall in the playoffs. That context matters even more given how the 2025 season unfolded.

Expectations were sky-high. After trading for Micah Parsons in August, Green Bay entered the year with the fourth-best Super Bowl odds. Instead, the season unraveled. The Packers finished on a five-game losing streak. It’s their longest streak since 2008, which also happened to be Aaron Rodgers’ first year as the starter. Then came the final blow: blowing a 21–3 halftime lead against Chicago in the NFC Wild Card Game and losing 31–27.

That collapse is why, despite years of regular-season success, LaFleur found himself under scrutiny, with legitimate calls for fire. Still, earlier this week, LaFleur and the Packers met to discuss the franchise’s direction. The outcome was a multi-year extension, finalized just as he was approaching the final year of his previous contract. Notably, this also marked Policy’s first major decision after officially replacing Mark Murphy in July 2025.

“This is one-of-one,” LaFleur said on Sunday after the season-ending loss and before signing an extension. “I love this place. I love the people. … I love our players, the locker room, everybody in our organization. I mean, this is a unique place. The community has been outstanding. I’ve lived in other places, so I think this is a unique place, and it’s a special place. My kids love it here; my family loves it here.”

Now, LaFleur heads into the 2026 offseason with long-term security. According to ESPN, this is “not a prove-it deal but a real commitment.” Whether that commitment eventually results in a Super Bowl is a discussion for another time. For now, the Packers have made their choice. As for the league, it has already shifted its attention to its latest storyline involving Jordan Love.

The league has admitted its mistake, but it’s too late now

During the Week 16 matchup between the Bears and the Packers, Chicago’s defensive lineman Austin Booker drew attention for all the wrong reasons. He hit Jordan Love twice: Once in the first quarter by landing on the quarterback with his body weight, and again in the second quarter with a blow to the head. That second hit resulted in a concussion and forced Love to leave the game.

The league acted soon after and fined Booker $5,818 for each play, totaling $11,636. Case closed. Fast forward to the Wild Card round, and Booker found himself in a similar situation. He delivered another hit on Love, but this time the outcome shifted dramatically. Love stayed in the game, the Packers went on to score on the drive, and Booker wasn’t flagged at all. No penalty. No stoppage. Nothing.

Now, the NFL has acknowledged it got that call wrong. The league has since admitted that the hit should have been penalized and fined Booker $46,371 for unnecessary roughness due to helmet use. The problem, of course, is timing. That fine came a week after Green Bay’s season had already ended. Had the officials thrown the flag in real time, the Packers would’ve gained a crucial 15 yards.

Instead, the correction arrived too late to matter. Chicago has now advanced to the divisional round, where they’ll face the Los Angeles Rams. Green Bay, meanwhile, is already in offseason mode, watching from the outside as the league admits a mistake that can’t be undone.

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