Despite a roster stacked with elite talent, an analyst predicts a brutal divisional race, and a surging Chicago Bears squad could leave Matt LaFleur and the Green Bay Packers watching January football from home.
The Green Bay Packers have made the NFL playoffs in six out of the seven seasons that Matt LaFleur has been head coach.
Missing the playoffs in 2026 would be an anomaly for the Packers under LaFleur and, frankly, an anomaly for the Packers since Brett Favre was the quarterback.
It's just what they do. They make the playoffs.
Sure, the Packers may struggle to win the whole enchalata. Through the Favre and Aaron Rodgers era, they have only two Super Bowl wins to show for it.
The Packers not making the playoffs would be shocking, though, especially with several key players expecting to come back healthy at the start, or near the start, of the 2026 season.
Could a team with a healthy Tucker Kraft, Zach Tom, Micah Parsons and Devonte Wyatt miss the playoffs?
NFL reporter Henry McKenna of FOX Sports is predicting that it will happen, though he admitted it was a painful prediction for him.
"Every one of my NFC playoff permutations left out an elite team, which made for an impossible decision. In this case, it was the Green Bay Packers who didn't make the cut. It genuinely pains me to leave them out, because they’re as good as any of the other teams in the NFC’s playoff pool," McKenna wrote.
This prediction is a tough one for the Pack. Not only does it have them missing the playoffs, but McKenna predicts the Detroit Lions will win the NFC North and the Chicago Bears will make it to the NFC Divisional Round of the playoffs as the seventh-seed.
The FOX Sports writer has a strong belief in the Bears, because he beleives in their head coach, Ben Johnson.
"Ultimately, I couldn’t bet against the Chicago Bears — which, admittedly, is a little bit crazy," McKenna wrote. "They won several close games last season to finish at 11-6, and those sorts of teams tend to regress. But over the offseason, I spoke to head coach Ben Johnson about the team’s plan to fend off regression, and I came away convinced that Chicago is here to stay."
Yes, that's the same Ben Johnson who hates the Packers and probably wouldn't throw Matt LaFleur a life preserver if he were drowning in Lake Michigan.
The only thing worse for Packers fans than watching the Packers lose to the Bears in the playoffs is watching the playoffs without the Packers and having to see the Bears -- who are "here to stay" in this scenario -- once again advance to the divisional round.
One would have to wonder if the extension that LaFleur signed this offseason with the Packers may be ripped up and thrown away by team president Ed Policy if everything that McKenna is predicting plays out.
Let's hope this won't be the case, because the 2026 season would indeed be painful if this is the way it goes.
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