How Will Packers Be Super Bowl Contenders With Matt LaFleur Back as Coach?

With Matt LaFleur back for Year 8 as Green Bay Packers coach, these are four big-picture areas that must be addressed following this year’s wild-card debacle.

Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur reacts to a play against the Minnesota Vikings. | Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – So, now what?

Whether the Green Bay Packers entered the 2026 season with Matt LaFleur as their coach or somebody else, the reality is someone was going to have to fix the glaring issues that led to the team’s playoff collapse against the rival Bears and it winning just seven of its final 16 games.

With LaFleur coming back for his eighth season on the job, he has plenty of areas to address in all three phases. Here’s a big-picture look.

Fixing the Offense

There’s an obvious staleness with the offense, a point driven home when the Eagles knew exactly what was coming on Josh Jacobs’ fourth-down run during a 10-7 loss.

Credit to LaFleur for bucking some of those tendencies and letting Jordan Love attack on some third-and-shorts with play-action passes against the Bears, but it was too late, to some extent. During the regular season, even with the hard-nosed running of Jacobs, the Packers were 27th in rushing success on third- and fourth-and-1. Of the five teams that were worse, four failed to reach the playoffs.

Is Adam Stenavich the right man to coordinate the offense? During the Jordan Love era, the Packers were 12th in points and 11th in yards in 2023, eighth in points and fifth in yards in 2024 and 16th in points and 15th in yards in 2025. An offense with a third-year quarterback and an experienced group of perimeter threats shouldn’t be going backward.

Is Luke Butkus the right man to lead the offensive line? The three main running backs all had significant downturns in their yards per carry in 2025 while the pressure rate faced by the quarterbacks is up three consecutive years.

Green Bay Packers offensive tackle Jordan Morgan (77) listens to offensive line coach Luke Butkus during the preseason. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Right tackle Zach Tom, who missed the final four games of the season due to a knee injury that will require surgery, admitted it was “going to sound cliché” but said the level of execution needed to improve.

“There are some things that we did on Saturday night that just can’t happen,” he said.

How is that possible in the 18th game of the season? This was a tremendous response.

“I think you just got to understand that every play, especially in these playoff games, every play matters,” he said. “You got to go out there, lock in, focus. On the road, I try to tell guys, you got to know the game plan inside and out because you’re not going to be able to hear sh**.

“You got to be in a position where you can get the play call and know what you got to do. You shouldn’t have to rely on asking the guy next to you. It’s on the road. It’s loud in there. And, yeah, we had chances to put them away when we had a lead and I just don’t think the execution was there.”

That falls on the players, yes, but it also falls on the coaches to drive that point home and hold players accountable.

From a personnel perspective, a real, experienced center would be helpful.

Finally, the Packers are paying Love a zillion dollars. After he finished fifth in passer rating, it’s time to turn him loose with greater frequency. The Packers finished with the fifth-highest percentage of running plays. Give Love the ball and unleash an “11” personnel grouping of Christian Watson, Jayden Reed, Matthew Golden and Tucker Kraft.

Fixing the Defense

The first order of business, obviously, will be monitoring Jeff Hafley’s future.

If Hafley lands a head-coaching job, which is the expectation, LaFleur will have to hire a defensive coordinator. For the sake of continuity, will he promote from within his staff? Defensive line coach DeMarcus Covington, for instance, was New England’s coordinator in 2024. Or will he bring in a veteran outsider such as Raheem Morris, a good friend who was fired after back-to-back 8-9 seasons as head coach of the Falcons?

Regardless, general manager Brian Gutekunst must supply better personnel.

Looking back, it’s a good thing he made the trade for Micah Parsons, because the defense was overmatched otherwise.

In the 13 full games with Parsons, the Packers allowed more than 25 points only once, the 40-40 tie against Dallas. In the five games without Parsons, including the Denver game in which he was injured, the Packers allowed 34 against the Broncos, 41 against the Ravens and 31 against the Bears – with 25 of those in the fourth quarter alone.

“I felt invincible never really sustaining a major injury before, and I kind of live my life like that and I’ve played like that until I wasn’t invincible anymore,” Parsons said. “And you go to a real share of appreciation. I never cheated the game, but I saw a video and I told the guys today, life has a funny way of showing you our suffering, and you got to be willing to accept the good with the bad and God let me maximize this season.

“I was more hurt because I knew how many people I was letting down when I got hurt and where I wanted to go, especially with the trade.”

Don’t blame Hafley for the demise. Good luck stopping any competent offense without a productive pass rusher, a run-stopping defensive tackle or consistent cornerback. During a milk-carton season, Rashan Gary had 7.5 sacks after seven games and 7.5 sacks after 18 games. Until Carrington Valentine’s ill-timed interception in the playoff game, Green Bay’s cornerbacks had one interception all season.

Green Bay Packers defensive end Rashan Gary (52) tackles Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. | Tork Mason / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“Realistically,” Parsons said he could be back for “Week 3, Week 4.” Even when he does return, he probably won’t be ready for his typical 50-snap workload. Without better players and, critically, better effort, the season could be teetering on the brink before Parsons is ready to be Parsons.

“I see the same things you see,” Parsons said. “People want to look at the play-calling, but I’m looking at the effort of the guys. I look at how guys are playing. Are we blocking? Are we getting blocks? Are we attacking? Those are the things us players, we can control.

“I think more people need to realize that like, yeah, you can do your job in the league. If someone says, ‘Hey, contain the edge’. You can just sit outside and make sure no one gets outside, or are you going to get off the block and make a play? So, sometimes it’s not about what position the coach puts you in, it’s about what position you put yourself in and that’s the type of reality and mindset that I want to bring to this team.”

The same is as true today as it was exactly 12 months ago: No team can be considered a serious contender with Keisean Nixon and Valentine as the primary cornerbacks. Cornerbacks and defensive tackles must be an emphasis this offseason.

Fixing the Special Teams

All year from the coaches’ perspective, criticism over Green Bay’s special teams circled back to a few bad plays skewing the whole operation.

That was true. After the Packers got their field-goal protection issues squared away and Brandon McManus got into a groove, Rich Bisaccia’s units actually were pretty decent. At least from the lowering-of-the-goalpost vantage point of a perenially terrible unit not making any game-changing blunders.

Of course, it all went to hell when it mattered.

In Week 16 at Chicago, Romeo Doubs’ botched onside-kick recovery ruined the team’s NFC North championship hopes.

Then, in a tale as old as time, special teams were a stick in the eye of Green Bay’s Super Bowl hopes. Have the special teams given the team a playoff edge since Desmond Howard in the Super Bowl almost three decades ago?

In the playoff rematch at Chicago, Green Bay’s coverage units, a strength all season, gave up two long punt returns and McManus missed three kicks.

The 65-year-old Bisaccia is beloved by the players. He is a glue guy. The problem, obviously, is the on-the-field product has been more Elmer’s than Gorilla.

Green Bay Packers assistant head coach/special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia is shown against the Baltimore Ravens. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Packers were one of only three teams without a 40-yard kickoff return and one of only four teams without a punt return of longer than 20 yards. Josh Jacobs’ 33-yard kickoff return in the playoff game – which he fumbled – was the team’s fifth-longest of the season. Doubs was the punt returner only because he could catch.

Punter Daniel Whelan is an incredible asset and Matt Orzech has become a reliable snapper. Otherwise, wholesale changes are needed. Will LaFleur start at the top?

Fixing the Injury Report

Injuries happen. Players can do all the right things in the offseason. The training staff can use all the cutting-edge techniques. And yet, nothing was going to prevent the torn ACLs sustained by Kraft and Parsons and the broken fibula sustained by Devonte Wyatt.

“I played out my body,” Parsons said. “That’s a good thing. We all know the risks. That’s the risk we take. I’m playing so hard that I snapped my knee, pretty much, in a sense. I was moving faster than my body could handle.”

Luck isn’t a plan. And it’s safe to assume LaFleur and the staff will leave no stone unturned in hoping to find an edge. But, in a way, the Packers have to cross their fingers for some good fortune from the Injury Gods so they can enter the playoffs with their best roster instead of their best-available roster.

“If I’m betting on myself, I’m going all in,” Kraft said. “One of the best players in the NFL on defense, Micah Parsons, yes, I do think that things would be completely different if we had not lost him in the Broncos game. I’m not even going to speak for myself because we lost so many weapons. Elgton Jenkins. Devonte Wyatt. Excuse after excuse, you could say, but this team, we had so many weapons dialed up, loaded up. We lost them.”

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