{"id":688120,"date":"2026-01-19T06:48:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T06:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/688120\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T06:48:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T06:48:39","slug":"packers-make-final-decision-on-firing-matt-lafleur-as-nfl-admits-jordan-love-mistake-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/688120\/","title":{"rendered":"Packers Make Final Decision on Firing Matt LaFleur as NFL Admits Jordan Love Mistake \u2013 Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shortly before taking over as president of the Green Bay Packers<\/a>, Ed Policy made his stance clear: he wasn\u2019t a fan of coaches or general managers heading into the final year of their contracts. Fast forward to now, and Policy has followed through. With Matt LaFleur entering the last year of his deal after a brutal Wild Card loss to the Chicago Bears<\/a>, the Packers opted to extend their head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Green Bay Packers yesterday agreed to terms with their coach Matt LaFleur on a well-deserved extension,\u201d NFL Network\u2019s Ian Rapoport said on NFL Game Day. \u201cAnd if this sounds a little familiar, we told you a couple of weeks ago that this was the Packers\u2019 plan going into the playoffs: Make sure that Matt LaFleur knew how much they appreciated him and believed him, and keeping him their coach would be their number one priority. That happened yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Predictably, the extension has drawn mixed reactions, and the skepticism isn\u2019t hard to understand. LaFleur hasn\u2019t been a bad head coach, at least not from September through December. In fact, he\u2019s been excellent in the regular season. Across seven seasons, he\u2019s posted a 76\u201340\u20131 record. The problem arises when the calendar flips to January.<\/p>\n

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LaFleur reached the NFC Championship Game in each of his first two seasons, losing both. Since then, the postseason results have gone in the wrong direction. He\u2019s gone 1\u20135 in his last six playoff games and sits at 3\u20136 overall in the playoffs. That context matters even more given how the 2025 season unfolded.<\/p>\n

Expectations were sky-high. After trading for Micah Parsons in August, Green Bay entered the year with the fourth-best Super Bowl odds. Instead, the season unraveled. The Packers finished on a five-game losing streak. It\u2019s their longest streak since 2008, which also happened to be Aaron Rodgers\u2019 first year as the starter. Then came the final blow: blowing a 21\u20133 halftime lead against Chicago in the NFC Wild Card Game and losing 31\u201327.<\/p>\n

That collapse is why, despite years of regular-season success, LaFleur found himself under scrutiny, with legitimate calls for fire<\/a>. Still, earlier this week, LaFleur and the Packers met to discuss the franchise\u2019s direction. The outcome was a multi-year extension, finalized just as he was approaching the final year of his previous contract. Notably, this also marked Policy\u2019s first major decision after officially replacing Mark Murphy in July 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one-of-one,\u201d LaFleur said on Sunday<\/a> after the season-ending loss and before signing an extension. \u201cI love this place. I love the people. \u2026 I love our players, the locker room, everybody in our organization. I mean, this is a unique place. The community has been outstanding. I\u2019ve lived in other places, so I think this is a unique place, and it\u2019s a special place. My kids love it here; my family loves it here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Now, LaFleur heads into the 2026 offseason with long-term security. According to ESPN, this is \u201cnot a prove-it deal but a real commitment.\u201d Whether that commitment eventually results in a Super Bowl is a discussion for another time. For now, the Packers have made their choice. As for the league, it has already shifted its attention to its latest storyline involving Jordan Love.<\/p>\n

The league has admitted its mistake, but it\u2019s too late now<\/p>\n

During the Week 16 matchup between the Bears and the Packers, Chicago\u2019s defensive lineman Austin Booker drew attention for all the wrong reasons. He hit Jordan Love twice: Once in the first quarter by landing on the quarterback with his body weight, and again in the second quarter with a blow to the head. That second hit resulted in a concussion and forced Love to leave the game.<\/p>\n

The league acted soon after and fined Booker $5,818 for each play, totaling $11,636. Case closed. Fast forward to the Wild Card round, and Booker found himself in a similar situation. He delivered another hit on Love, but this time the outcome shifted dramatically. Love stayed in the game, the Packers went on to score on the drive, and Booker wasn\u2019t flagged at all. No penalty. No stoppage. Nothing.<\/p>\n

\"September<\/p>\n

September 7, 2025: Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love 10 warms up before a game against the Detroit Lions in Green Bay, WI. Packers defeated Lions, 27-13. \/Cal Media. Green Bay United States of America \u2013 ZUMAc04_ 20250908_zma_c04_109 Copyright: xKirstenxSchmittx<\/p>\n

Now, the NFL has acknowledged it got that call wrong. The league has since admitted that the hit should have been penalized and fined Booker $46,371 for unnecessary roughness due to helmet use. The problem, of course, is timing. That fine came a week after Green Bay\u2019s season had already ended. Had the officials thrown the flag in real time, the Packers would\u2019ve gained a crucial 15 yards.<\/p>\n

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Instead, the correction arrived too late to matter. Chicago has now advanced to the divisional round, where they\u2019ll face the Los Angeles Rams<\/a>. Green Bay, meanwhile, is already in offseason mode, watching from the outside as the league admits a mistake that can\u2019t be undone.<\/p>\n

The post Packers Make Final Decision on Firing Matt LaFleur as NFL Admits Jordan Love Mistake \u2013 Report<\/a> appeared first on EssentiallySports<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shortly before taking over as president of the Green Bay Packers, Ed Policy made his stance clear: he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[1586,7240,391,113,7,41,345,2514,2513,2004,392,1724,58,3031,491,6,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-688120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-bay-packers","8":"tag-aaron-rodgers","9":"tag-austin-booker","10":"tag-chicago-bears","11":"tag-detroit-lions","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-green-bay","14":"tag-green-bay-packers","15":"tag-greenbay","16":"tag-greenbaypackers","17":"tag-indianapolis","18":"tag-indianapolis-colts","19":"tag-jordan-love","20":"tag-los-angeles-rams","21":"tag-matt-lafleur","22":"tag-micah-parsons","23":"tag-nfl","24":"tag-packers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115920431916551310","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688120","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=688120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}