The Green Bay Packers’ Week 1 collapse did more than spoil an opener. It dragged last year’s playoff finish right back into the spotlight and put Matt LaFleur’s place at the center of the conversation.
That’s the uncomfortable reality now facing Green Bay’s leadership. LaFleur is not being judged in a vacuum, and nobody is rewriting his entire run with the team.
But in a league where even coaches like Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh can feel pressure, recent results matter more than past accomplishments. Right now, the Packers are living in the most recent failure.
Since Aaron Rodgers left and Jordan Love took over, LaFleur has delivered one postseason win. For a franchise with Green Bay’s standard, that’s not much to lean on. And that’s why the decision to re-sign him in January keeps looking stranger after every fresh collapse.
The timing of that extension is what makes this so sharp. Green Bay had just been knocked out of the playoffs after blowing a double-digit lead against a hated division rival, and instead of treating that as a line in the sand, the front office rewarded the coach with a new deal.
Plenty of coaches lose playoff games. Fewer do it in that fashion.
Fewer still get extended afterward.
Now the Packers have followed that up with a very similar unraveling in the first week of the 2026 season. Sunday’s loss only sharpened the questions around whether the organization made the right call by locking LaFleur in after the postseason debacle.
What makes the latest collapse especially hard to explain is the opponent. Green Bay was beaten by a team expected to be at the bottom of the NFC North, and that team had to turn to backup quarterback Bo Nix. There just isn’t much room to defend a performance like that.
The broader issue is not just one bad Sunday. It’s the pattern. Packers fans have now watched their team fall apart in each of the past two games, and there have been no real answers from the sideline when things started going sideways.
That’s where the extension comes back into focus. By re-signing LaFleur after such an ugly playoff exit, Green Bay sent a message that failure could be absorbed. Instead, the team has now produced another collapse, and the decision looks more expensive by the week.
At this point, the concern is obvious: the Packers may eventually need a leadership change just to move past this run of failures. And after what happened in Week 1, that question is no longer easy to avoid.
In Other News...
Packers First Injury Report Leaves One Early Concern For Jets Week
After a season-opening loss, the Packers got back to work with an early injury report that was relatively clean, but not entirely carefree. Defensive tackle Warren Brinson was the only player absent from practice because of a calf injury, leaving Green Bay with one immediate health note to track as it shifts attention to a Week 2 meeting with the Jets.
Elsewhere on the field, Aaron Banks, Zach Bako-Bewele, Brandon Cisse and TyRon Hopper were all back in practice in some capacity as the team sorted through various recovery timelines and availability questions. For a Packers group trying to steady itself quickly after Week 1, the bigger concern right now is less about the full roster picture and more about whether Brinsons absence turns into something more than an early-week blip. [Read more 🡒]
Packers Suddenly Have A Jordan Love Problem They Can't Ignore
After a rough Week 1 loss to the Vikings, the Packers found themselves staring at an issue they hoped would not linger into September: protection for Jordan Love. Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said he is not overly concerned by the offensive lines performance, even though the unit gave up a troubling number of unblocked pressures and sacks and left Love dealing with far too much heat in the pocket.
The bigger concern is whether Green Bay can sort through the mess quickly enough before it starts to affect everything else in the offense. Several linemen graded poorly in pass protection, and the Packers are expected to keep experimenting with different combinations up front as they try to settle on something that gives Love a cleaner launch point and a little more confidence moving forward. [Read more 🡒]
Packers Defense Suddenly Faces A New Concern On Short Week
The Packers injury picture got a little murkier this week, and not in a way anyone around the building would have wanted. Green Bays latest report added new concussion designations for Javon Hargrave and Lukas Van Ness, even though neither was reported to have concussion symptoms during or right after the previous game. On a short week, any fresh concern on defense tends to draw attention quickly, especially when the team is already sorting through several other limited and non-participating players at practice.
For a Packers defense trying to stay on schedule, the timing adds another layer of uncertainty as preparation shifts toward the next game. The team will keep monitoring those situations in the coming days, while the Jets are also dealing with a list of injuries that could keep multiple players out of their next matchup. For Green Bay, the immediate focus is less on the opponents availability than on whether two key defenders can get cleared in time. [Read more 🡒]