You could feel the tension snap the second Matt LaFleur lost his cool. When that “TAKE A LAP!” boom echoed across the practice field, defensive line coach DeMarcus Covington was already swearing at Rasheed Walker after he’d pulled Kingsley ‘JJ’ Enagbare to the ground during a move-the-ball drill. This wasn’t your typical camp dust-up. Not with the way LaFleur’s voice cracked like a whip with that expletive-laced command. Walker had just finished tangling with Enagbare in the scorching Green Bay heat, and now? He was getting the full high school treatment in front of everyone. But hold up…. Just when you thought this would be another coach lays down the law’ story, the Packers offense went and flipped the script.

Walker began his solitary jog. The kind of punishment that affects not just veterans. But everyone rolled their eyes – until Zach Tom broke ranks. Then Elgton Jenkins. Soon, Josh Jacobs and Tucker Kraft were running too, turning what should’ve been a walk of shame into a powerful statement. “I haven’t seen something like that since high school,” Tom would say later. “We didn’t want him to go around alone. So, we’re just like, ‘Let’s join him.’ We have his back.”

The locker room reaction told the real story. “It’s spontaneous,” Jenkins shrugged. “I feel like he was just playing football, but we’re going to ride with him no matter what. It was just basically like, he does it, I do it.” Rhyan put it bluntly: “We’re not going to let him run alone because at the end of the day, we were out there with him when the incident happened. It was a unit thing. So, we just took a jog with him. Nothing wrong with it.”

Even Jacobs, the team’s new star, revealed the deeper meaning: “Sometimes, when you’re in the heat of a moment, you might not necessarily agree with something that’s going on, and you kinda get singled out. I think that just knowing that somebody got your back, gon do it with you, kinda helps out a little bit.”

LaFleur’s expletive-filled tirade afterward tried to reassert control. “Just some of the chippiness and some of the post-playthings that might be going on, offensively and defensively, the message is practice smarter,” Jordan Love said of the coach’s post-practice talk. But the message had been sent. When Kraft called it “a little Coach Carter-esque” and declared “One unit, man. If we get punished, we get punished together,” he wasn’t just referencing a movie – he was declaring a new reality.

Now the critical question remains: Was this just a fleeting moment of unity, or the first shot in a brewing locker room revolution? With every command now carrying heavier consequences, and every decision met with unspoken resistance, LaFleur faces his biggest leadership test yet. The players have drawn their line. But maybe, this just brings the unit together. So, why not?

7D Chess from Matt LaFleur?

On large scheme of things, yes, Matt LaFleur has got the players on one side and him on the other. It’s not that deep. Has happened before… Multiple times. But sometimes the HCs don’t mind such a sacrifice.

After Walker refused to release Enagbare following a play and dragged him to the ground, Matt erupted. He ordered the offensive lineman to run a lap. But what happened next shifted the narrative entirely. Rather than leaving Walker to jog alone, nearly the entire starting offense joined him. This included Tucker Kraft, Josh Jacobs, and multiple offensive linemen, in a striking display of solidarity.

“One unit, man. If we get punished, we get punished together,” Kraft declared afterward, summing up the team’s mindset. Walker, initially reluctant, admitted the gesture lifted his spirits: “I saw my teammates running with me, so I was like, ‘I’m going to run.’ It helped my mood.”

Matt LaFleur’s reaction told the real story. The typically composed coach exploded in one of his angriest outbursts in years, first pulling Walker aside for a terse ‘practice smarter’ lecture, then unloading on the entire team afterward. His expletive-filled speech about discipline landed just as the players’ lap protest made its statement.

Now the bigger questions emerge: Is this just camp friction? Not at all! With Jordan Love leading a young core and veterans like Jacobs setting the tone, how LaFleur handles this is crucial. And so far, he’s done it like a leader. But beyond this… The Injury concerns linger – Lloyd (groin) and Wicks (calf) remain sidelined. And that’s where the real problem starts for Matt & Co.