GREEN BAY — Matt LaFleur pondered the question. Then, he contemplated his answer — and thought about just how much self-censoring he wanted to do.
The Green Bay Packers head coach had just put a wrap on the team’ offseason program with the third and final mandatory minicamp practice on Thursday morning.
The session had ended early when kicker Brandon McManus drilled a 58-yard field goal, the outcome of which was to decide whether practice would end 30 minutes earlier than scheduled, or continue until the final horn.
After McManus’ boot, the team gathered near midfield at Ray Nitschke Field and invited retiring team president/CEO Mark Murphy into the middle of the scrum, where LaFleur delivered a brief speech, presented Murphy with an autographed helmet and gave him the last word for the day.
“I tell ya, I’ve been around the NFL a long time,” Murphy told the players and coaches. “I really sense something special with this team. And hopefully, you see the same thing.”
Then Murphy, who played eight NFL seasons as a safety for the then-Washington Redskins, broke down the huddle.
“1 … 2 … 3 … Super Bowl!” Murphy declared.
A moment for Mark at his last minicamp pic.twitter.com/4RJPCfVIew
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) June 12, 2025
Not long after, LaFleur stood at the Lambeau Field media auditorium lectern for the last time until training camp kicks off on July 23.
At the end of his Q&A session with reporters, someone pointed out to LaFleur that the Packers have long list of not-so-young-anymore third- and fourth-year players who have had really good moments and shown flashes of high-level play — wide receivers Romeo Doubs, Dontayvion Wicks, Jayden Reed and Christian Watson; tight ends Tucker Kraft and Luke Musgrave; offensive tackles Zach Tom and Rasheed Walker; and defensive players like linebacker Quay Walker, defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt and cornerback Carrington Valentine — but have yet to be consistently upper-echelon performers.
At that point, LaFleur was asked, if those players are who the Packers believe they are, just what are the 2025 Packers capable of accomplishing?
Exactly what was going through LaFleur’s mind in that moment, only the coach knows. But given his reply — and the way he delivered it — it sure sounded as though he sees the same lofty potential as his soon-to-be-retired former boss.
“You know, that’s a great question,” LaFleur began, before pausing. “Because I don’t want to put too much out there …”
He paused again.
“… but I think we’re capable of being a really good football team — a really good competitive football team,” LaFleur continued. “But it’s not just going to happen. Again, it goes back to the work.
“Collectively, we need everybody to be their best individually in order to be the best team we can be. And it’s not going to be easy. We know that. But those guys have embraced every challenge we’ve put in front of them, so I’m excited about this group.
“But ultimately, we’ve got to go do it.”
The guess here is that LaFleur thinks he has a potential Super Bowl contender on his hands, and he was simply reluctant to put that extra pressure on his maturing team — and particularly his quarterback, Jordan Love, who is entering a fulcrum third season as the starter — or create headlines with a Super Bowl-or-bust proclamation.
It’s also possible that LaFleur simply didn’t think it was something that should be said by the coach of a team that went 11-6 in the regular season last year but was, including the playoffs, 0-6 against the three NFC teams (Detroit, Minnesota and Philadelphia) that finished ahead the Packers in the conference standings.
Add to that the fact that the Packers went 1-5 in the NFC North — and their lone win, over the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field, was a Karl Brooks fingertip on a blocked field-goal attempt away from being a loss, too — and lost their final three games of the year (regular-season losses to the Vikings and Bears before the NFC wild card loss to the Eagles), and everyone knows there is work to be done.
“Everybody feels good this time of the year. But the bottom line is you’ve got to work,” LaFleur said. “I don’t know anything that’s worthwhile in this life that comes easy without putting in the work.
“But those guys have got to take it to heart. Ultimately, it’s up to each individual to put in that work to come back and be in a better place. And then collectively, hopefully that adds up.”
While LaFleur might’ve been reluctant to talk big during the offseason program, his players weren’t afraid. Love himself acknowledged that the team has Super Bowl dreams and that he must play at a higher level than last year to get his team there.
Meanwhile, despite playing on a defense that ranked in the top 10 in the 32-team NFL both in total defense (fifth, at 314.5 yards per game) and scoring defense (sixth, at 19.9 points per game), the feeling on that side of the ball is that the unit can be so much better.
Championship-caliber, they might even say.
“When you want to win a Super Bowl, it don’t matter who you play, you’ve got to come out and play. We won 11 games last year, but we lost two games [apiece] to three teams — and then we lost to the Bears,” veteran cornerback Keisean Nixon said. “The next step is to beat the teams that we lost to. The three teams we lost to twice were playoff teams, so what’ll get us over the hump is to beat the teams we need to beat.
“When you don’t win a Super Bowl, you just wasted a year at the end of the day. There’s only one winner. We’re trying to make sure that’s us this year — 2025.”
And if those pivotal young players — himself included — do indeed play up to their potential, that’s exactly what could happen, Wyatt said.
“The sky’s the limit. That’s all there is to say. Super Bowl,” Wyatt said. “If we all just come together and do what you just said, the sky’s the limit for us.
“We’re all still young. I don’t know what everybody’s contract looks like, but for this year, for us to have what we have, we can make that happen. For sure.”
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