Matt LaFleur’s future as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers is in question following their disastrous loss to the Chicago Bears in Saturday’s wild-card matchup.
New Packers president Ed Policy is expected to decide in the coming days whether to extend LaFleur or move on from him, ESPN reported Sunday. If Green Bay opts for the latter, former Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh is expected to become a top candidate. His agent, Bryan Harlan, is the son of former Packers president Bob Harlan, ESPN added in its report.
LaFleur, who has one season remaining on his contract, has had a largely successful tenure in Green Bay. He’s 76-40-1 over seven seasons, missing the playoffs just once. However, 2025 marked the third year that the Packers got the No. 7 seed in the NFC, and LaFleur is 3-6 in the playoffs.
Saturday’s game was arguably the most devastating of those six losses. Green Bay held a 21-3 lead at halftime over the Bears and was winning 21-9 entering the fourth quarter. But the Packers punted four straight times in the second half and struggled to kill time on their penultimate drive, which ended in a field goal miss. That allowed the Bears to drive down the field and take a 31-27 lead with 1:43 left. The Packers advanced to Chicago’s 23-yard line on their final drive, but Jordan Love’s Hail Mary attempt fell incomplete on the final play of the game.
It was the fifth straight loss for Green Bay, which finished the regular season 9-7-1. While the Packers lost star edge rusher Micah Parsons (ACL) for the season in their Week 15 loss to the Denver Broncos, and Love missed the final two-plus games due to a concussion, it’s still a disappointing finish for a team that was among the favorites to win the Super Bowl for much of the year.
As hot-seat rumors are expected to heat up with LaFleur in the coming days, he declined to discuss his future with the team following Saturday’s loss.
“With all due respect to your question, now’s not the time for that,” LaFleur told reporters when asked if he expects to return next season. “I’m just hurting for these guys. I can only think about what just happened, and there will be time for that.”
But LaFleur made it clear that he would like to remain in Green Bay.
“This is the greatest organization in the world, in my opinion,” he said. “It’s very humbling. I’m certainly disappointed right now, disappointed mostly for — well, not mostly — I’m disappointed for everybody that’s associated with the Green Bay Packers. I’m disappointed for our locker room. I’m disappointed for our fans. I’m disappointed for our leadership, all our employees, everybody involved with the Green Bay Packers right now.”
Love also made it clear that he’d like to see LaFleur, who has been his head coach since the Packers drafted the QB in 2020, remain in Green Bay.
“I definitely think Matt should be the head coach,” Love told reporters. “I’ve got a lot of love for Matt, and I think he does a good job.”
Last week, an assistant general manager on a team looking for a head coach told FOX Sports’ Ralph Vacchiano that the Packers might have been one of several teams that contacted the ex-Ravens head coach following his firing on Tuesday. At least three teams that haven’t fired their head coach reached out to Harbaugh, according to Vacchiano. That news came before the Miami Dolphins’ fired Mike McDaniel on Thursday.
Harbaugh told FOX Sports NFL insider Jay Glazer that he only plans to meet with a select group of teams as he searches for his next job. He’s expected to narrow the search to three or four teams this weekend, Glazer added. There are currently eight head coach vacancies in the NFL.
Like LaFleur, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst has one year remaining on his contract. Gutekunst has been the team’s general manager since 2018 and has worked with the organization since 1999.
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