It took them a while, but the Green Bay Packers finally announced that they are bringing back head coach Matt LaFleur, general manager Brian Gutekunst and executive vice president/director of football
operations Russ Ball on multi-year extensions. We’ll have to wait and see on further coaching staff moves, as the Packers have been known to hold off on their officially release of their full coaching staff until after the combine.
So far, the terms of these three extensions haven’t leaked, other than the framing of them as “multi-year” deals. Packers president and CEO Ed Policy didn’t disclose details, either in the team’s official release.
Here’s what Policy had to say about the decision, on the Packers’ website:
“We are excited to extend our commitment to Brian, Matt and Russ as the leaders of our football operations. Their steadfast dedication, passion and collaboration have remained constant in our drive to compete at the highest level,” said Packers President and CEO Ed Policy. “While we are all disappointed with the way this season ended, we remain aligned in purpose and have spent considerable time over the past weeks collaborating on a path forward. I am exceedingly confident we have the right people to achieve our goal. The entire Packers organization looks forward to supporting every effort to bring our community and fans another championship that they very much deserve.”
If I were to guess, LaFleur’s per-year money comes above Chicago’s Ben Johnson ($13 million per year), because it would be more difficult to recruit coaches to Athletes First (LaFleur’s agency) if the coach with the second-best record all-time over his first seven years of his NFL tenure couldn’t come ahead of Johnson, who signed his deal before ever being a head coach of a team. I also assume that LaFleur is under contract through at least 2029, since years (and the guaranteed money that comes with those years) seemed to be a touchy subject in contract talks. Whether that means LaFleur is on his remaining 2026 season from his previous deal, plus three years of an extension, or they tore the deal up and just gave him a completely new four-year (or more) deal is unknown.
Fair market value for LaFleur, considering reporters said he would have been head-to-head with John Harbaugh as the potential number one coaching candidate on the market in 2026 had he been released, would probably be in the $20 million per year over five years range, which is what Harbaugh received from the New York Giants. Again, the years matter because salaries are generally fully guaranteed at the NFL level, so the remaining total left on a coach’s contract is his buyout cost.
Usually, the Packers have tried to keep their head coaches and general managers on similar timelines, from a contract perspective. Because of that, I assume that LaFleur, Gutekunst and Ball will all have their contracts expire in the same offseason, but that is another I Think, not an I Know.
