Now What After Packers’ Super Bowl Drought Reaches 15 Years?

The Green Bay Packers lost their fifth consecutive game and were eliminated by the Chicago Bears on Saturday night. Here’s what’s ahead for another long, cold winter in Titletown.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) is pressured by Chicago Bears defensive end Austin Booker. | Wm. Glasheen / USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

CHICAGO – The Green Bay Packers entered the 2025 season like a lion. On Aug. 28, they traded for Micah Parsons, cementing their status as Super Bowl contenders.

Exactly 135 days later, the Packers went out like a lamb. They didn’t just lose in the wild-card round. They were eliminated by the century-old rivals, the Chicago Bears, in yet another epic playoff meltdown on Saturday night. It was their fifth consecutive loss, the Packers’ longest season-ending losing streak since 1990.

It was a crushing disappointment for a season that was derailed by two crushing injuries.

One week after Jordan Love and Tucker Kraft dominated in Green Bay’s come-from-behind victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kraft suffered a torn ACL in a listless loss to the Panthers.

One week after Parsons – on the heels of a three-game stretch of six sacks – produced relentless pressure in a key win over the Bears – Parsons suffered a torn ACL at Denver.

The Packers lost that game, and every other game.

So, now what? How do the Packers – a franchise located in Titletown USA – build upon their strengths, fix their weaknesses and finally get back to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2010, when they beat the Bears at Soldier Field in the NFC Championship Game before beating the Steelers?

The trade for Parsons was seismic. Even while missing the final three-plus games, he finished third in the NFL in pressures, according to Next Gen Stats, and seventh with 12.5 sacks. He was everything the team could have hoped. He turned a good defense into a great one. His absence was obviously felt as Caleb Williams led the Bears’ comeback.

Season-long issues at cornerback and defensive back never were addressed. They weren’t addressed in free agency. They weren’t addressed in the draft. They weren’t addressed with a late-season transaction. In meaningful fashion, anyway. It was nothing but a parade of castoffs and unanswered Hail Marys, and it was all exposed by the Bears in the second half.

Futures of Matt LaFleur, Brian Gutekunst

The next order of business will be new team President Ed Policy’s first order of business. With coach Matt LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst entering their final seasons under contract, Policy will have to determine whether he wants to move forward with one, the other or both.

LaFleur has won a lot of games. In NFL history, he ranks 16th in winning percentage. Nine of the coaches ahead of him are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. However, after reaching NFC Championship Games in 2019 and 2020, the Packers were a stunning one-and-done in 2021, won one playoff game in 2023 and were one-and-done again in 2024 and 2025. That’s 1-4 the last five seasons.

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said the Packers and LaFleur will begin contract negotiations “shorty after the season ends.” This game would not determine LaFleur’s future, Rapoport said, but it’s reasonable to believe everything will be part of the calculus for Policy. The nature of Saturday’s loss can’t be ignored.

“If everything goes well, the hope is that remains for a long time,” Rapoport wrote of LaFleur’s run as coach. That doesn’t necessarily mean an extension is a slam-dunk certainty, especially after what happened to Chicago. Part of everything going well, obviously, means terms of the contract. It’s possible LaFleur – if he’s kept – will be pressed to shake things up, though it’s also possible he’s already leaning that direction.

Gutekunst deserves credit for quickly and successfully navigating the transition from Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love. The Saints still haven’t recovered on the field or with the salary cap since the end of the Drew Brees era. Gutekunst’s youngest-in-the-NFL rosters are 3-for-3 in reaching the playoffs since Love took over.

However, he’s had too many whiffs with early-round draft picks and, for the first time, had a bad free agency with not nearly enough return on investment for guard Aaron Banks (four years, $77 million) and cornerback Nate Hobbs (four years, $48 million).

On Saturday night, the offense face-planted for most of the second half and the defense was helpless.

Key Personnel Decisions Looming

The Packers have four upcoming free agents who played at least 74 percent of the snaps: left tackle Rasheed Walker, guard-turned-center Sean Rhyan, receiver Romeo Doubs and linebacker Quay Walker.

Rasheed Walker, because he plays a premium position, could be a man in demand. He is a better player than Dan Moore, who signed a four-year, $82 million contract with the Titans in free agency last offseason. Plus, the Packers probably are ready to pass the baton to 2024 first-round pick Jordan Morgan. Ready or not.

Quay Walker had another solid season and will demand a large contract, too, and 2024 third-round pick Ty’Ron Hopper will be much less expensive.

The wild card in free agency will be quarterback Malik Willis, who has been excellent in almost every opportunity in his two seasons since being acquired for a seventh-round pick. No doubt the Packers would love to re-sign him, but Willis hasn’t worked for years to have a seat on the bench. He figures to get a starting opportunity.

OverTheCap.com projects the Packers entering the offseason about $16.7 million over the cap. There is significant money to be gained in moving on from Elgton Jenkins ($20.0 million) and Rashan Gary (almost $11 million). A contract extension would take the sting out of Devonte Wyatt’s fifth-year tender of $12.9 million.

A more difficult decision will have to be made about Josh Jacobs, the workhorse running back and team leader who endured an injury-plagued season. He could be released to create $8.375 million of cap space but there’s no obvious replacement on the roster and the roster has more holes than ways to plug them.

Still, tough financial decisions will have to be made to keep the team together, let alone add to the nucleus.

Added together, the Packers are unlikely to be major players in free agency this offseason because of the opportunity to max out their compensatory draft picks, including possible third-rounders in the 2027 draft if Rasheed Walker and Willis sign for significant money.

Meanwhile, because of the Parsons trade, the Packers won’t have a top-50 draft pick.

The Big Picture

With limited draft capital and a limited financial war chest, the Packers will have, well, limited opportunities to improve their roster.

Wishing and hoping is not a plan. However, Green Bay’s best chance of competing for a championship might depend on rapid and impactful recoveries by Kraft and Parsons.

Moreover, player development, always a necessity in Green Bay, will be of heightened importance.

Big Year 2 jumps from the 2025 draft class will be a necessity from first-round pick Matthew Golden, second-round pick Anthony Belton and third-round pick Savion Williams. Golden fizzled after a promising start, Belton showed some potential when being thrown in at right guard down the stretch and Williams was practically a nonfactor.

Big Year 3 jumps from the 2024 draft class will be a necessity, too. Maybe Morgan will be a standout at left tackle once he’s allowed to focus on that position after a failed try to make him a jack-of-all-trades lineman. The third-round picks, running back MarShawn Lloyd and Hopper, have been nonfactors.

The Packers have major needs on both sides of the line, cornerback and, perhaps, kicker after Brandon McManus missed an extra point and field goal against the Bears.

How they’ll fill those needs, whether it’s better draft picks or better production from former draft picks, will determine the fate of the 2026 Packers - regardless of who’s running the team.

However, for another season in which there will be no Titletown, all eyes will be on Policy and if he believes LaFleur is the right man to finally get the Packers over the hump.

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