With Packers Falling Apart, Ed Policy’s Brett Favre Moment Awaits

GREEN BAY, Wis. – On Jan. 1, 2008, Mark Murphy took over as president and CEO of the Green Bay Packers. Not long thereafter, the you-know-what hit the fan when iconic quarterback Brett Favre changed his mind on retirement and, after a drama-filled standoff, was traded.

On July 25, Ed Policy took the reins from Murphy. A franchise-altering decision awaits him, as well, in terms of the future of coach Matt LaFleur.

The Packers didn’t call this a Super Bowl-or-bust season, but general manager Brian Gutekunst raised the bar.

“I think it’s time we started competing for championships, right? I think they’re ready,” he said following last year’s one-and-done postseason.

Gutekunst upped the ante further before the start of this season when he traded for Micah Parsons at the cost of two first-round picks, Kenny Clark and a blockbuster contract.

“Micah’s production in his first four years in the league is very well known, so our guys will understand why we did this,” Gutekunst said after the trade.

Policy would not have signed off on the trade if he didn’t think the Packers were ready to take the next step. Instead, the season is stepping off a cliff.

After a four-game winning streak, the Packers have lost three in a row. In a potential Super Bowl preview at the Broncos, Parsons suffered a torn ACL and the Packers blew a second-half lead. The following week, with a chance to take the NFC North lead at Chicago, the Packers blew a fourth-quarter lead.

On Saturday night, the Packers were the Ravens’ punching bag for 60 minutes.

“That was a humbling night,” LaFleur said in his opening remarks following the third and final home loss of the season.

As if the Packers hadn’t been humbled enough by the Broncos and Bears.

Stumbling Into Playoffs Again

Last year, the Packers lost to the Vikings and Bears to end the regular season, then lost to the Eagles in the playoffs.

It could be even worse this year. The Packers have lost three consecutive games and will close the regular season at the Vikings, who have won four in a row.

“We have to understand this is a group thing,” safety Evan Williams said. “You can’t point any fingers. That’s just going to separate you further. And I feel like everybody just has to self-check, everybody has to look in the mirror and just really answer the hard questions.

“‘Did I put my best foot forward today? Did I go as hard as I could on every snap?’ And I feel like if everybody does that and practices this coming week heading into the playoffs with that kind of edge, with that kind of competitive urgency, we’ll be in a good spot.”

There was a lot of look-in-the-mirror talk from the players and by LaFleur himself on Saturday night. Seventeen weeks into the season, it seems a little late for that. Is there any reason to believe the Packers will find the “competitive urgency” necessary to get to a “good spot” in time for the playoffs?

Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur argues a call during the game on Saturday. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

That’s what Policy must be asking himself.

From a Super Bowl perspective, the season-ending injuries to Tucker Kraft and Parsons might have been too much for any team to overcome. However, in the final home game of the season, with a slim chance to win the division, with an opportunity to end a losing streak, with a chance to build momentum, the Packers were thoroughly embarrassed.

“We got our ass whupped,” safety Javon Bullard said.

Is that a coaching problem, meaning LaFleur and the staff he hired (and, in the case of Rich Bisaccia and Luke Butkus, hasn’t fired)? Is that a personnel problem, meaning Gutekunst?

Together, Gutekunst and LaFleur have won a lot of games.

Even with the recent slump, LaFleur ranks 16th in NFL history in winning percentage. Nine Pro Football Hall of Famers are ahead of him on the all-time list. For the sixth time in his seven seasons on the job, the Packers are in the playoffs, which is no small feat, even in this age of watered-down postseasons.

Good But Not Good Enough

Gutekunst successfully navigated the personnel and financial transition from Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love.

The Packers have been consistently good. But they haven’t been good enough since 2010. This is Titletown. Super Bowls are the expectation. Or at least they should be.

If things had grown stale, if the Packers were stuck – perhaps comfortably stuck – on the hamster wheel of being only fringe championship contenders, the Parsons trade changed everything. The Packers finally had a great player on defense, their version of Reggie White or Charles Woodson, who helped the Packers win Super Bowls. It was a clear declaration that nine or 10 wins and a wildcard appearance were no longer good enough.

However, this season seems destined to end like last season. The Packers are staggering into the playoffs, a punch-drunk fighter just waiting to get knocked out.

Sure, the returns of Parsons and Kraft next year will give the Packers a jolt. They’ll be right back in the playoff mix because it's a talented roster overall. That’s been good enough in Green Bay for a long time. Patience is a virtue, to be sure. It can also lead to things getting stale.

LaFleur’s offense has been stale for most of the season, a fact driven home when Kraft was no longer on the field to run over defenders and turn short passes into explosive gains.

The exciting part of Saturday’s debacle was the big-play productivity of Malik Willis. Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. The Packers moved the ball in chunks. Where has that been all season? The offense, oddly, was more aggressive with the backup quarterback than with its starter.

As seasons progress, good teams build upon their strengths and improve on their weaknesses. The team’s strengths this season – red-zone offense and run defense, to name a couple – have gotten worse while the team’s rushing offense and takeaway productivity have remained poor.

Seriously, how do you lose three games in which you didn’t punt?

Green Bay’s problems don’t fall solely on LaFleur. The offensive line is bad. What’s left of the defensive line is bad. Gutekunst might have been the only person on earth who thought they’d be fine at cornerback.

Rashan Gary, Aaron Banks and Nate Hobbs haven’t been worth the paper their contracts were printed on.

Now, following the Parsons trade, the Packers don’t have a first-round pick to add an elite prospect and they don’t have the finances to aggressively address their needs in free agency.

Ultimately, you can’t fire all the players if they’re underperforming. You can fire the coaches.

When Policy shakes off what happened on Saturday night and rises above the haze to take a 30,000-foot view of the franchise, does he see a coaching staff capable of winning a 14th NFL championship?

If not – if Policy looks at the roster and wonders how in the hell they managed to only win nine or 10 games – his Brett Favre moment will arrive when the offseason begins on Jan. 5.

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