Packers Coach Matt LaFleur Must Heed Message from Players, NFLPA Report Card

Matt LaFleur on Monday at the NFL owners meettings spoke to the media for the first time since the day after his team’s season ended at the hands of the Chicago Bears.

LaFleur has a brand-new contract extension, which will tie him to Green Bay for the foreseeable future. Of course, that was not set in stone once the season ended.

“Certainly, I’m ecstatic, obviously, to be back with the Packers,” LaFleur told reporters on Monday. I think this is a one-of-one organization. I love the people that we have in our building and our organization, not only on our team but just within the totality of the organization.”

Green Bay’s season looked like it had potential to get back to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 2010 season. A trade for Micah Parsons gave the Packers’ defense a field tilting presence it had not had since the Za’Darius Smith in his first season in Green Bay. The offense looked like it was hitting its stride in a 28-21 victory over the Chicago Bears that put the Packers in first place in the division at 9-3-1.

Of course, that promise turned into wondering what could have been, as the Packers lost five games in a row to end their season, including the aforementioned playoff loss at Soldier Field to the Chicago Bears.

LaFleur talked a lot about his team needing to finish games, and developing a killer instinct.

It’s true. Green Bay had a lead in both of their losses to the Bears. A lead might be underselling it.

They were in command, and overwhelmingly likely to win. Had they won the first of two matchups at Soldier Field, the Packers likely would have won the NFC North, and who knows what the conversation surrounding the team could look like right now.

Instead a comedy of errors in their loss on December 20 against the Bears was a harbinger of things to come when they returned to Soldier Field less than a month later.

After LaFleur’s team fell on its face again in Chicago and was mocked incessantly its their division rival they have owned for the better part of three decades, it felt like a change at coach was inevitable.

When the team convened for locker room cleanout, however, a multitude of Green Bay’s top players and influential voices in the locker room endorsed LaFleur.

Conventional wisdom was that despite a poor finish to the season, LaFluer still had the support of the locker room.

Trouble In Paradise?

Unless, of course, he didn’t.

To be fair to LaFleur, it’s unclear how each individual grade is weighted against one another, and how the final grade is ultimately calculated.

With those qualifiers in place, it was worth noting that LaFleur’s grade from 2024 dropped significantly in 2025.

He went from an A-minus in 2024, to a B-minus in 2025. Considering the way the season ended, the timing of the release of the player’s grades on LaFleur did not do him any favors in the court of public opinion.

Of course, the public does not make decisions, Ed Policy does, and he chose to extend LaFleur, which in turn gives him a chance to fix the issues that ailed his team in 2025.

“If I’m being honest about it, I think there were some guys that were upset about roles last year and I think that took a toll on our football team,” LaFleur said to reporters.

“You need guys that bring great energy every day. From a coaching standpoint, role clarity is key so we’ve got to obviously so a better of communicating with our players, ‘Hey, here’s your role.’ If you’re not happy about your role, it’s on you to do something about that, to carve out a bigger role on this football team. The buy-in is absolutely critical, getting guys that are juiced, that are ready to go to work each and every day, is going to be critical for us.”

LaFleur would not go into specifics as to whether all of the disgruntled players were shown the door after 2025, so any speculation into who the upset players are would be unfair.

If there are still disgruntled players from a year ago, LaFleur is right that getting buy in from all of his guys to help his team ultimately reach the summit of the mountain they are climbing.

Finding Solutions

How does he do that?

“I don’t feel that way but, unfortunately, some guys did, so that tell me I’ve got to do a better job of communicating,” LaFleur said.

“It goes back to the relationship piece. I think it’s so critical. We always talk about connected teams are powerful teams, and we’ve got to grow that connection. Certainly that’s been a topic of conversation within our building of how do we get these guys a little closer because the more they know each other, the more they’re going to battle for one another.”

Regardless of how LaFleur finds answers to what ails his team, there’s no question that he needs to find them. LaFleur is going to be in his eighth season as the team’s head coach. He has not been to a Super Bowl. He has won just one playoff game since the 2020 season.

That might cut it in some other places, but not in Green Bay. With the way last season finished, it’s going to be a challenge to fight off demons about the team and its players wondering if they’re watching the same movie and heading toward another disappointing loss when things start going poorly.

Ultimately, if they win will the talking point surrounding LaFleur’s grade on the NFLPA report card much ado about nothing?

It’s possible. The Packers and LaFleur have a chance to squash any thoughts about there being trouble in the locker room by the ultimate antidote for anything in the NFL.

Winning, and winning big.

If they don’t win big, the noise will get louder. If they have another disappointing season as they did in 2025, that noise is only going to be deafening.

When the noise reaches a fever pitch that a coach has lost the locker room, usually that leads to a change. Despite a contract extension, there’s plenty of pressure on LaFleur to win and win right now.

Here's @JacobWestendorf's fifth mock of the year, which starts and ends by addressing a big need at cornerback. ⬇️https://t.co/AZjkFpExy5
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) March 30, 2026