GREEN BAY — Convinced that he has the right people running the Green Bay Packers’ football operation despite some disappointing playoff exits on each of their watches, new team president/CEO Ed Policy reached an agreement on a multi-year contract extension for head coach Matt LaFleur on Saturday, with a new deal for general manager Brian Gutekunst expected to be done in the coming days. 

The Packers did not immediately announce the deals, which were first reported by NFL Network and ESPN, but two league sources confirmed that the extensions were — at long last — finished.

LaFleur has not spoken with the media since his traditional end-of-the-season Q&A session with reporters last Sunday.

But amid outside speculation that LaFleur’s job was in jeopardy after the Packers lost their final five games — including a 31-27 NFC wild card playoff loss to the rival Chicago Bears a week ago — Policy ignored the pleas of a particularly vocal portion of the fan base and chose to stay the course with his head coach and his GM in his first major decision since taking over as president last summer.

Assuming the presidency after his predecessor, Mark Murphy, reached the Packers’ mandatory retirement age of 70, Policy, speaking in mid-June to a small gathering of reporters who regularly cover the team, said that he did not believe in having head coaches or GMs in “lame duck” years — and both Gutekunst and LaFleur were each set to be in the final year of their existing contracts in 2026.

During that Q&A session with those reporters, Policy discussed a myriad of topics, but chief among them during the 45-minute conversation inside the alumni suite at Lambeau Field was the futures of LaFleur, Gutekunst and executive vice president/director of football operations Russ Ball.

With LaFleur and Gutekunst both under contract through the end of the 2026 season, Policy made it clear at the time that he would not extend either of their contracts before the 2025 season began.

But he also said he didn’t want either man to be working the 2026 season without being under contract beyond that, meaning he’d need to either sign them to extensions or move on from one or both of them.

“I’m generally opposed — I’d never say never — [but] I’m generally opposed to a coach or GM going into the last year of their contract,” Policy explained. “That creates a lot of issues. I think normally you have a pretty good idea of where that relationship is going when you have two years left — not always, but normally.

“So I think generally speaking, I would avoid ‘lame-duck’ status. It’s oftentimes difficult on everybody involved. But there are certain situations that probably call for it, so I would not say never.”

In the same conversation, Policy called LaFleur, Gutekunst and Ball “exceptional people” and said he felt “very good about all three of those individuals. I love them. I trust them. I respect them.

“Ultimately, I will do what’s best for the Packers, and I expect the exact same from them. But right now what’s best for the Packers, I think, is having those three in their current roles.”

The Packers hired Gutekunst in 2018, amid his predecessor Ted Thompson’s failing health. With longtime head coach Mike McCarthy in place at the time, Murphy altered the franchise’s long-standing structure on the football side of the operation, deciding that both the GM and head coach would report to him and be on the same line of the organizational flowchart.

Under both Thompson and Pro Football Hall of Fame general manager Ron Wolf, the Packers GM oversaw the entire football operation, including the hiring and firing of the head coach.

Murphy unceremoniously fired McCarthy with four games left in the four games left in the 2018 season, his 13th at the helm. Although Gutekunst was part of the search and hiring processes, Murphy ultimately made the final call on hiring LaFleur, who was part of the Kyle Shanahan-Sean McVay offensive system that took the league by storm.

While the Packers have not played for an NFL title since the Aaron Rodgers-led 2010 team won Super Bowl XLV a decade and a half ago, they have made the playoffs in 12 of the 15 seasons since. They reached the NFC Championship Game four times over that span — the 2014 and 2016 title games under McCarthy; the 2019 and 2020 championship games under LaFleur — and the only time they’ve missed the postseason during LaFleur’s seven seasons was in 2022, the four-time NFL MVP’s final season in Green Bay.

Since replacing Rodgers with 2020 first-round pick Jordan Love, the Packers have made the postseason each of the last three seasons, all as the seventh and final NFC seed. They beat the Dallas Cowboys on the road to reach the NFC divisional round that first season with Love under center but have been eliminated in the wild-card round each of the past two postseasons, including by the Chicago Bears on Jan. 10, when they blew an 18-point halftime lead in a 31-27 loss to their archrivals.

“Of course. I mean, this [job] is one of one. I love this place,” LaFleur replied last Sunday when asked if he wanted to continue as the Packers head coach — with a host of other NFL teams likely to line up to hire him if Policy had opted to move on.

“I love the people. As much as you guys [in the media] drive me nuts sometimes, I love you guys. I love our players, the locker room, everybody in our organization. I mean, this is a unique place.

“The community has been outstanding. I grew up in the Midwest, and it’s got the same type of vibe that I grew up with in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. The people, unless you’re from here, you don’t understand how friendly everybody is. No matter who you are, you’re walking down the street and people say hello to one another. And I’ve lived other places.

“This is a unique place, and it’s a special place. My kids love it here, my family loves it here.”

Asked to describe his relationship with Policy, LaFleur replied, “It feels like since the day I got here and he’s been great. He’s been super supportive and I can’t say enough great things about him.”

In seven seasons, LaFleur has amassed a 76-40-1 regular-season record (a .654 winning percentage) but a 3-6 postseason record (.333).

The Packers were a Super Bowl contender this year and had won four straight games until a Dec. 14 loss at Denver in which they lost first-team All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons, acquired from the Dallas Cowboys in an Aug. 28 trade with the Dallas Cowboys, to a torn ACL in his left knee. The team had already lost star tight end Tucker Kraft to a torn ACL in his right knee during a Nov. 2 loss to the Carolina Panthers.

“You’re always trying to evaluate and making sure that you’re putting your players in position to make plays. And ultimately it’s going to come down to that,” LaFleur replied when asked what it will take to win more consistently in the postseason. “And these games are tight; the margins are small. And when you have those opportunities, you’ve got to take advantage of them. Unfortunately for us, you always look and see when it gets tight, if a guy makes a mistake, why are we making a mistake? And so those are constantly at the forefront of our mind.”

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