The Packers’ Problems Run Deeper Than the Football Field

Well, well, well. I hate to be the guy who says I told you so. Actually, who am I kidding? I absolutely love being that guy.

Back in January, after the Packers somehow turned a 21-3 halftime lead against the Bears into another embarrassing playoff exit, I wrote that extending Matt LaFleur was a terrible idea. I couldn't understand how you could watch that collapse, look at the previous playoff failures, watch this team repeatedly fold when something goes wrong and decide the answer was MORE Matt LaFleur.

But that's exactly what Green Bay did.

LaFleur and Brian Gutekunst all entered the offseason with contracts running through 2026. New Packers President and CEO Ed Policy had already made it clear he wasn't interested in lame-duck situations. So the Packers basically had two choices: extend these guys or move on.

They chose extensions.

Three games into 2026, how's that working out?

The Packers are 1-2 after getting their asses handed to them 35-14 by the Atlanta Falcons AT LAMBEAU FIELD. Twenty-one points. That's the largest home loss of the LaFleur era and the first time in eight seasons under LaFleur that Green Bay has started 1-2.

And I'm not going to sit here and pretend the season is over after three games. It's not. There is a shit ton of football left.

But this isn't really about three games. That's the problem.

It's about the same issues showing up over and over and over again, and a lot of them start with Gutekunst.

Green Bay knew Micah Parsons tore his ACL in December. They knew there was a very real chance he wasn't going to be ready for the beginning of the season. By the summer, everyone understood there would be a portion of the 2026 schedule played without the best defensive player on the roster.

The Packers also knew for months that there was serious uncertainty surrounding Josh Jacobs. They knew his availability could become an issue. They knew the running back room behind him wasn't exactly loaded with proven answers.

And the offensive line? Anyone with two functioning eyeballs knew that room had questions.

So what did Gutey do?

Basically what Gutey always does. Trust his guys, trust his board, trust that he's smarter than everyone else and trust that whatever he already assembled is going to magically work itself out and hope that tackles can play at the guard position and that guards can play at the tackle position. Throw shit at the wall and hope it sticks basically.

At running back, they traded for Kaleb Johnson and apparently decided, "Yep, that should do it." Johnson barely produced as a rookie in Pittsburgh, and somehow that became Green Bay's emergency plan for potentially losing Josh Jacobs.

That's your answer? 17 rushing yards in Week 3 is fucking embarrassing.

That's the problem with Gutekunst at times. There seems to be this stubborn refusal to admit when a position room isn't good enough. Instead of going outside and aggressively fixing an obvious weakness, Green Bay too often convinces itself that the answer is already in the building.

Meanwhile, Jordan Love is getting absolutely murdered behind an offensive line that can't protect him.

Through three games, Green Bay ranks 26th in pressure percentage allowed, according to TruMedia. Love's average time to throw is 2.5 seconds, which ranks 31st in the NFL. On Thursday night he got the ball out in an average of 2.53 seconds and still got hit 12 times. The Packers allowed pressure on 40.7 percent of his dropbacks.

You can have all the receivers you want. You can draw up all the cute motions and formations you want. You can pay your quarterback. You can talk about Super Bowls.

None of that shit matters if your quarterback has about two seconds to throw the football.

And that's where we get to LaFleur.

I've said this for years now: adversity hits LaFleur teams differently. Something goes wrong and you can almost feel the entire sideline tighten up. Then the camera finds LaFleur and he has that same look.

You know the one.

Deer. Headlights.

"Oh shit, this is happening again."

Well, guess what? If your head coach looks like he's waiting for the roof to cave in, how exactly do you expect his players to react?

This team has folded under pressure too many times for it to be a coincidence anymore. Through eight seasons, the undisciplined football keeps happening. The stupid mistakes keep happening. The collapses keep happening. Special teams disasters have come and gone.

Players make the same mistakes and somehow nobody ever seems to actually pay for them. Even if you want to blame position coaches, LaFleur has proven to hardly ever want change to position group staffs despite no improvements being made.

That's culture. And culture starts with the head coach.

Which brings me to Tucker Kraft.

Come on, man.

Kraft was upset after the game because Packers fans booed. Really? The same Tucker Kraft who has become a fan favorite in Green Bay is now disappointed that fans paying hundreds of dollars to watch their team get embarrassed 35-14 in the HOME OPENER weren't supportive enough?

You know what else doesn't help you win?

Scoring 14 points. Rushing for 17 yards. Getting your franchise quarterback hit 12 times. Going down 21 points at Lambeau.

Sorry, but Packers fans don't owe you applause for that shit.

And that's why Thursday night felt bigger than one bad September loss. Gutekunst has pushed his chips into the middle. This isn't supposed to be another rebuilding season where everyone gets to point at how young the roster is and talk about how bright the future looks.

The organization told everyone this group was capable of winning a Super Bowl.

Then start looking like one.

Because right now they don't.

Maybe Green Bay turns it around. LaFleur teams have rebounded from ugly stretches before. They're 1-2, not 0-8, and nobody needs to start booking January vacations quite yet.

But there isn't some magical offensive linemen walking through that door tomorrow. There isn't another Josh Jacobs sitting around waiting for a phone call. These were foreseeable problems.

That's what makes this so frustrating.

The Packers knew Parsons would miss time. They knew Jacobs' availability could become an issue. They knew the offensive line needed help. They had an entire offseason to prepare for it, and they didn't.

So now Gutekunst, LaFleur, the coaching staff, and the players need to take a long look in the mirror and figure this shit out quickly.

Because Policy spent his first major offseason as Packers president tying himself to Gutey and LaFleur. He made it clear he believed Green Bay had the right people in the right places.

Well, we're about to find out.

And if this thing goes completely off the rails?

Maybe those extensions won't look quite as comforting anymore.