In the hours after the Green Bay Packers’ playoff loss to the Chicago Bears it was ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that the team and head coach Matt LaFleur were working on a contract extension that would keep him in town past the final year of his contract in 2026. While many believed that meant LaFleur would be staying in Green Bay, Schefter’s latest report leaves some possibility that the two sides could part ways after all.
Schefter’s update came during a radio appearance on ESPN Milwaukee on Tuesday evening where he clarified his recent comments. While the two sides are continuing to work on an extension, Schefter stated “There is no deal right now” and it’s “up in the air” whether LaFleur could return.
“When there’s a negotiation and there’s no deal, there could be a breakthrough at any moment,” Schefter explained. “I think both sides would like to make that happen, but it’s now 7:37 p.m. on Wednesday, and they’ve been trying to do this for a little while and still have not gotten it figured out. The longer it lingers, the more you wonder where it’s going to go and how it’s going to result. The way I would interpret it right now is that it’s up in the air.”
Matt LaFleur’s Potential Return to Packers Has Become Complicated
LaFleur’s return could be held up by several things. The most obvious is the pay that he could be commanding somewhere in the neighborhood of $15 million, according to Wendell Ferreira of A to Z Sports. It’s also important to note that LaFleur’s current salary between $8 million to $9 million currently isn’t in the top 10 of the NFL and well behind Chicago Bears HC Ben Johnson, who made $13 million as a first-time head coach this season.
There could also be other factors happening within the negotiations. The Packers could be demanding some changes to LaFleur’s staff entering the 2026 season which could include firing special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia. A similar situation played out with former Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh but his refusal to fire offensive coordinator Todd Monken resulted in his dismissal, leading to rumors that he could be a candidate to replace LaFleur if the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement on an extension.
Then there’s the chance the Packers are having second thoughts. Former Packers fullback John Kuhn weighed in on the situation on "The Tundra" podcast with The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman and theorized that Green Bay could be taking a thousand foot view when it comes to the current state of the organization.
“I believe that the future of what this team is being discussed currently,” Kuhn said. “Whether it’s staff under Matt LaFleur, whether it’s Matt LaFleur’s extension, and how many years that could potentially be, and the way they want this team to look. Some of the things that went wrong this year with game management, with penalties, with other things, with injuries and how they can prevent all of that."
There are a lot of layers that could be holding up LaFleur’s contract extensions and Schefter warned “that there is a time limit” to negotiations due to the number of head coaching openings in the NFL and his belief that “most places would have a high level of interest’ in LaFleur to the point where teams could trade a draft pick to the Packers in order to hire him.
What seemed to be a done deal seems to have turned into a complicated negotiation and the Packers and LaFleur must find a resolution in the coming days.