{"id":669974,"date":"2026-01-11T23:27:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T23:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/669974\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T23:27:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T23:27:17","slug":"matt-lafleur-of-course-wants-to-return-as-packers-head-coach-after-playoff-loss-to-bears-will-the-decision-be-his","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/669974\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt LaFleur ‘of course’ wants to return as Packers head coach after playoff loss to Bears. Will the decision be his?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur wasn\u2019t ready to discuss his future with the team late on Saturday night, following a heartbreaking playoff loss to the Chicago Bears.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow\u2019s not the time for that,\u201d he said simply after the team\u2019s stunning 31-27 wild-card loss<\/a> to the Bears at Soldier Field.<\/p>\n

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On Sunday afternoon, LaFleur was asked about his future with the organization once again. A little less than 24 hours after the loss, he still didn\u2019t really have much of an answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not the focus right now, to be honest with you,\u201d LaFleur said when asked about his future. \u201cWe\u2019re fresh off this loss. My sole focus is on our players, our team, and just trying to find ways to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

LaFleur, who took over in Green Bay ahead of the 2019 season, only has one season left on his current contract with the organization. The NFL Network reported earlier on Saturday that Packers team president Ed Policy was expected to meet with LaFleur shortly after the season to begin negotiating a new contract. Policy and LaFleur spoke briefly on the plane on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

[Get more Packers news: Green Bay team feed<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Whether that changes in the wake of the Packers blowing an 18-point lead to the Bears remains to be seen. The Packers had been 9-3-1 before losing five straight games to end the season. All of those losses came after star defensive end Micah Parsons was lost for the season after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament.<\/p>\n

“We’re not where we want to be,” LaFleur said, according to ESPN. “I know we fought through a lot of adversity this year. Unfortunately, we didn’t do enough to overcome that adversity. That’s all of us collectively.”<\/p>\n

LaFleur, whose $5 million salary ranks well below the top tier of the league’s coaches<\/a>, made clear on Saturday night that he wants to return as the Packers\u2019 head coach. While that may not be up to him, he backed that up again on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course [I want to return]. This is one of one,\u201d LaFleur said. \u201cI love this place. I love the people. As much as you guys drive me nuts sometimes, I love you guys. I love our players, the locker room, everybody in our organization. This is a unique place \u2026 My kids love it here, my family loves it here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Packers have made the playoffs in all but one of LaFleur’s seven seasons as head coach, but have not advanced to the Super Bowl under him. Poor special teams play has continued to prove costly for Green Bay in the postseason. Brandon McManus missed a pair of field goals and an extra point in the loss to the Bears.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say every season is maddening when you end the way we have, especially this season,\u201d LaFleur said. \u201cAdversity is part of this game, and bottom line is you have to find a way to overcome. If you don\u2019t, then you have to answer a lot of questions for it.<\/p>\n

While LaFleur has been undoubtedly successful with the Packers, they\u2019ve repeatedly fallen short of a Super Bowl run. Whether that will lead to a coaching change, only time will tell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur wasn\u2019t ready to discuss his future with the team late on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[15095,391,7,41,345,2514,2513,3031,491,6,428],"class_list":["post-669974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-green-bay-packers","tag-brandon-mcmanus","tag-chicago-bears","tag-football","tag-green-bay","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-greenbay","tag-greenbaypackers","tag-matt-lafleur","tag-micah-parsons","tag-nfl","tag-packers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115879060905446574","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}