Green Bay Packers GM Brian Gutekunst Calls Out a Matt LaFleur Weakness

Brian Gutekunst wasn't the person who ultimately decided to bring back Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur. He's the general manager and tasked with giving LaFleur the tools to work with. It was team president Ed Policy who made the call to extend LaFleur, alongside Gutey and executive vice president/director of football operations Russ Ball.

That's not to mean that Gutekunst doesn't have confidence in LaFleur as a head coach. He expressed a good deal of confidence in the soon-to-be eighth-year head coach when speaking to the media on Wednesday.

In reviewing his disdain for the way the 2025 season ended, though, Gutekunst may have inadvertently called out what has seemingly become LaFleur's biggest weakness as a head coach. Or perhaps, he did it on purpose. It was the first time he's spoken to the media since the Packers ended the season on a five-game losing streak (including a disastrous playoff loss to the Chicago Bears), after all.

He was there to discuss his extension, but it was a post-portem evaluation of sorts from Gutekunst.

"Finishing games is certainly something that we've got to concentrate on as we head into 2026," Gutekunst said. 

The Packers were up, 21-3, at halftime against the Bears in their wild card round matchup. They ended up losing, 31-27, as the Bears roared back in the second half. A few weeks before that, in another contest against the Bears in Chicago, the Pack had a 16-6 lead with 5:06 to go in the fourth quarter. They ended up blowing it, which made the rematch in the NFC playoffs hurt even worse.

For Gutekunst, finishing strong, or the lack of ability to, has become a concerning trend under LaFleur as of late.

"In Matt's first five years, we were 25-8 in December and January," Gutekunst said. "I think we're 3-9 the last two years, so we're looking at that from a lot of different angles, to make sure that we're playing our best football in December and January.

"We've got to win the games that matter the most. That was a strength of ours prior to these last couple of years, was how we finished. We were playing our best football at the end of the season. We haven't done that the last two years."

Ask even a casual Packer fan what LaFleur's biggest problem is, and most would tell you that it's his inability to put a team away. The Packers are often the more talented team, and LaFleur is often the more talented head coach (or at least the more talented play-caller). They seem to play with their food and get complacent in games that they should easily win, though.

When did the Packers play a complete game in 2025? Perhaps the only instance was in Week 1 against the Detroit Lions, but they took their foot off the gas late in the game as well.

There aren't really many, if any, examples.

Green Bay went into a mid-December matchup with the Denver Broncos with a 9-3-1 record. The Packers were gunning not just for the NFC North crown, but there was a real chance for them to take the NFC's No. 1 seed.

Micah Parsons tore his ACL in the second half of that game, and the wheels fell off. The Pack lost to the Broncos, 34-26, despite holding a 23-14 lead early in the third quarter.

That was the beginning of the end for this team, as they never won again.

They finished the season 9-7-1.

Can LaFleur find that "killer instinct" as a head coach? Is that something he can learn eight seasons into his career, or is he who he is at this point? Even at just 46, it's tough to change your stripes.

Ultimatly, you get the sense that Gute believes LaFleur can evolve. 

"He's an excellent football coach," Gutekunst said of LaFleur. "To get where we're going, he's the guy we need. I think he's as eager as anybody to get back at it."

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