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The Packers appear to be keeping the franchise’s brain trust together for the foreseeable future.
Green Bay reportedly reached contract extensions with general manager Brian Gutekunst, coach Matt LaFleur and director of football operations Russ Ball this offseason, ESPN’s Ross Demovsky reported Monday.
Terms of the extensions were not made readily available and Packers president Mark Murphy did not confirm the deals. However, Murphy said at a meeting with the team’s shareholders Monday that he was “confident not only Matt [LaFleur] and Brian [Gutekunst] but Russ Ball will continue to be Packers’ employees for years to come,” per Demovsky.
All three members of Green Bay’s leadership group were nearing the end of their contracts heading into the 2022 season. Gutekunst initially signed a five-year contract in ’18 that was set to expire after this year’s campaign, while LaFleur originally signed a four-year contract with a fifth-year option in ’19. Ball has been a member of the organization since ’08 but was promoted to his current role in ’18.
The new deals for Gutekunst, LaFleur and Ball were completed earlier this offseason and well ahead of the Packers returning to training camp this week, according to ESPN.
“I’d prefer to keep [contract extensions] internal,” Murphy said Monday, per Demovsky, “but obviously you can see from my comments [to the shareholders] that I feel like they’re doing an outstanding job.”
The Packers have been among the most dominant regular season teams in the NFL since Gutekunst replaced Ted Thompson, posting a 45-19-1 record since ’18. LaFleur has been instrumental to that success, having gone 39–10 and earning the most wins by an NFL head coach in his first three seasons on the job.
Despite Green Bay’s success during the regular season, the franchise hasn’t fully broken through under the current leadership. The Packers reached the NFC championship game twice and lost in the divisional round once, but have not yet made a Super Bowl appearance in the Gutekunst-LaFleur era.
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