GREEN BAY — Not only are the Green Bay Packers sticking with head coach Matt LaFleur, they also intend to sign general manager Brian Gutekunst and director of football operations Russ Ball to their own multi-year contract extensions.
And when they do, the Packers intend to continue with their existing power structure, in which all three men will report to team president/CEO Ed Policy.
LaFleur signed his multi-year contract extension with the team on Saturday, although the team did not formally announce the deal, and a source with firsthand knowledge of the Packers plans said that Gutekunst and Ball should have extensions of their own completed in the next few days.
Once they do, Policy intends to keep having LaFleur, Gutekunst and Ball report directly to him, just as they did to his predecessor as president, Mark Murphy, the source said.
“It’s not because [Policy is] enamored with the structure,” the source said Saturday evening, saying instead that Policy is “enamored by the people” involved.
“The structure is working, and there’s more risk in changing the structure and keeping the same people,” the source said.
Before Murphy changed the structure in 2018 when he hired Gutekunst, the Packers had given their general manager full autonomy over the team’s football operations, including the hiring and firing of the head coach.
That structure was put in place by longtime team president Bob Harlan when he hired Pro Football Hall of Fame GM Ron Wolf in November 1991. Wolf, in turn, fired the coach he inherited (Lindy Infante) and hired San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Holmgren to replace him. Holmgren, in turn, led the 1996 Packers to the Super Bowl XXXI title.
In 2005, after Harlan stripped head coach/general manager Mike Sherman of his GM duties and hired Ted Thompson as GM, Harlan gave Thompson the same authority Wolf had held.
Thompson fired Sherman after the 2005 season and hired — this may sound familiar — 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McCarthy, who led the 2010 team to the Super Bowl XLV championship.
McCarthy was the head coach when Murphy promoted Gutekunst to replace Thompson, who was battling health issues. Although Gutekunst interviewed for the job expecting to have full control of the football operation as Thompson had, Murphy altered the franchise’s long-standing structure and decided that both the GM and head coach would report to him.
Murphy also promoted Ball, who was also considered for the GM job, to an executive vice president role and put him on the same line of the organizational flowchart as the coach and GM.
Although Policy could have changed the structure without moving on from any of the three principals, it likely would have been at least somewhat problematic to move Gutekunst ahead of LaFleur and/or Ball.
As of now, Policy has no plans to make such a change.
“This is always going to be more about the people,” the source said, “not structures.”
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