CHICAGO — Ed Policy’s right hand rested on his chin. His thumb and pointer finger caressed back and forth as if he were pondering what exactly he was watching. The Green Bay Packers’ first-year team president stared blankly out at Soldier Field from the first row of the press box.
The stadium of his archrival, once silent, was erupting. The Chicago Bears had just taken a lead late in the fourth quarter. The team Policy runs, which held an 18-point halftime advantage not long before, had imploded. Time was running out to save the Packers’ season.
Once the clock struck zero and quarterback Jordan Love’s final prayer fell unanswered in the end zone, Policy swiftly departed without much expression. Bears 31, Packers 27. Season over. An inexplicable, stunning collapse finalized, Policy led Green Bay’s front office contingent into an offseason with a seismic question he must answer.
Should Matt LaFleur return as Packers head coach?
“With all due respect to your question, now’s not the time for that,” LaFleur himself said when asked if he thinks he’ll be back. “I’m just hurting for these guys. I can only think about what just happened, and there will be time for that.”
Before officially taking over for Mark Murphy as Packers president in July, Policy told local reporters that he wasn’t extending LaFleur or general manager Brian Gutekunst at the time. Both are under contract through the 2026 season. Policy added that he’s generally opposed to lame-duck years, meaning he didn’t want either the head coach or GM serving in their role next season with just one year remaining on their deals. In other words, LaFleur and Gutekunst will likely either get extensions this offseason or no longer be employed by the Packers in the near future.
Policy, 55, is the son of former San Francisco 49ers executive Carmen Policy. He remembers his legendary father celebrating with champagne after Super Bowls, but said the experiences he relies on more as he learns to run his own organization come from watching his father struggle through tougher times. Atop that list of grueling decisions was trading Joe Montana in 1993. Perhaps the biggest decision of his father’s career elicited backlash from fans, which Policy saw firsthand. Even so, Policy learned from his father that no matter what those inside or outside 1265 Lombardi Ave. think, he needs to do what’s best for the Packers. Just like dad did with the 49ers.
Policy hasn’t even been on the job for six months and already faces one of those decisions himself.
Policy has been with the Packers in various positions since 2012. He served on the hiring panel for LaFleur, negotiated his contract and said last summer that he has a close personal and professional relationship with him. Policy also wrote the following before Week 18 in his monthly column on Packers.com:
“I am extremely proud of how our team has handled many challenges. Last season we struggled within our division and this year we improved to 4-1. We’ve persevered through a litany of injuries and a very challenging schedule and placed ourselves in a position to compete for our ultimate goal, a Super Bowl championship.”
LaFleur just finished his seventh season as head coach. Here are the facts: He has a 76-40-1 regular-season record, the fourth-best winning percentage among active head coaches behind the Philadelphia Eagles’ Nick Sirianni, the Los Angeles Chargers’ Jim Harbaugh and the Buffalo Bills’ Sean McDermott. LaFleur has guided the Packers to six playoff appearances during his tenure — two NFC Championship Game appearances in 2019 and 2020, two losses in the divisional round in 2021 and 2023 and two wild-card round defeats in 2024 and 2025. He has helped develop Love into one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks, but one could argue the Packers have plateaued as an organization when it comes to playoff success. That a franchise based in “Titletown” with headquarters on Lombardi Avenue should strive for more.
Is LaFleur the right coach to lead the Packers over the top and bring the Lombardi Trophy home? And how much slack does he get because of injuries to stars like defensive end Micah Parsons and tight end Tucker Kraft, and other key players like right tackle Zach Tom, defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt and center Elgton Jenkins?
NFL Network reported Saturday morning that Policy and LaFleur would discuss an extension after the season and that both sides want to reach a deal. The report also stated that LaFleur wasn’t coaching for his job against the Bears in the sense that his future wouldn’t be decided by four quarters. That being said, it’s reasonable to assume that whatever happened on Saturday would factor into Policy’s big-picture evaluation of LaFleur, even if those four quarters alone didn’t decide LaFleur’s fate.
After the disaster we all just watched along with Policy, two things appear most realistic when he and LaFleur meet in the coming days — if Policy does indeed still want to extend his head coach.
It’s impossible to precisely delegate blame when the shortcomings are as widespread as those on Saturday night, but here’s what we do know: Green Bay’s offense disappeared in the second half after dominating in the first half. The Bears brought more pressure, including defensive back blitzes, and the Packers’ pass protection crumbled while the running game stalled.
“We just couldn’t get anything going,” Love said. “Came out, a couple three-and-outs to start and it was really disappointing. I think after the first half we played, being able to drive the ball down and score it seemed like every time, I think we’ve just got to go back and look at it. But yeah, it’s just a lack of execution and finding ways to make plays that really just hurt us.”
After a stout first three quarters, Green Bay’s defense allowed a whopping 25 points in the fourth quarter.
“There was just multiple times where the coverages on the back end, we just not on the same (page),” linebacker Quay Walker said. “It’s one person calling this, another person playing this and that led to bite us, honestly. When it comes to the playoffs, we should be rolling. We shouldn’t have to go through these type of things.”
And it wouldn’t be a Packers postseason game without a special teams disaster. This year, there were several. Kicker Brandon McManus missed two field goals and an extra point, his misses from 44 yards and on the PAT both coming in the second half of the fourth quarter. The 12th-year veteran called his night an “embarrassing performance” and “the most disappointing part of my career right now.”
The Packers have made clear they’re not using youth as an excuse or justification. They’re still young, but there’s enough experience on the roster — playoff experience, at that — where that shouldn’t be a hindrance in big moments. Yet there the Packers were in Chicago, wilting under the pressure of one yet again.
A delay of game on third-and-10 coming out of a timeout late in the fourth quarter. Burning a timeout not long after because they only had 10 defensive players on the field. A false start with 13 seconds left on second-and-10 from the Bears’ 23-yard line.
“We’ve just got to do a better job of keeping our composure as a football team and going out there and doing the fundamental things that we practice all the time,” LaFleur said. “I think when you get into these types of big games, when you don’t execute simple fundamentals, it comes back to bite you. That’s exactly what happened.”
Matt Lafleur leaves the field after Saturday’s wild-card loss against the Bears at Soldier Field. (Mark Hoffman / Imagn Images)
LaFleur said his team became “a little bit disheveled” in the second half, but it began crumbling long before Saturday night. The Packers fell apart in Denver four weeks ago after injuries to Parsons and wide receiver Christian Watson, blowing a nine-point third-quarter lead and losing by eight. The next week was what we thought would be the worst Packers collapse in Chicago this season, when the Packers relinquished a 10-point lead with less than four minutes remaining and lost in overtime. After that, a humbling loss to the Baltimore Ravens, who bullied Green Bay on the ground to the tune of 307 rushing yards.
After a quasi-preseason game in Week 18 during which the Packers rested many key players, they preached the value of a clean slate, how everyone was 0-0 again. Instead, the playoffs offered more of the same humiliation and ended their season on a five-game losing streak.
“When we got somebody down, we gotta put them away,” safety Javon Bullard said. “That s—, it’s starting to get damn-near embarrassing. We can’t do s— like that and expect to win these big games going against these good-ass teams. We’re gonna have to get our s— together.”
How much of this late-season collapse and Saturday’s season-ending debacle — blowing an 11-point lead with less than five minutes left — is on the head coach? And is it enough to sway Policy to part ways with LaFleur, whether mutually or not? That’s for the new team president to decide.
Players have their head coach’s back and perhaps that factors into Policy’s equation.
“I definitely think Matt should be the head coach,” Love said. “I’ve got a lot of love for Matt and I think he does a good job. And that’s it.”
“He’s our leader. I’ll tell you that much,” safety Evan Williams added. “We have full faith in him, in all of his decisions. I can’t speak on any extension or anything that’s in his future. I know business is business, but he’s been my only head coach and really the only one that I see needing moving forward. Feel like he’s done a great job of putting us in positions to win and in scenarios like today, we’ve just got to find a way to finish.”
“I’m not too much concerned about Matt,” running back Josh Jacobs said. “I feel like the fans put way too much pressure on him with what they feel like he should be at … I think we take it for granted how much winning (there) is and how much winning he does. I think he’s become a great leader since I’ve been here. I think that he cares a lot about this program.
“I know what he means to the players. Speaking for myself, I’m gonna stay firm on wanting him to be the head coach and wanting them to figure something out with him.”
Whether Jacobs, Williams and Love get their wish remains to be seen. They should find out soon. There are cases both for and against LaFleur. Policy must now sort through them to do what his father taught him.
Do what’s best for the Green Bay Packers, no matter what others may think.
