GREEN BAY, Wis. — Incoming Green Bay Packers president/CEO Ed Policy is not quite ready to offer contract extensions to Matt LaFleur and Brian Gutekunst, but given that he said he doesn’t generally believe an NFL head coach or general manager should work into the last year of their contracts without a new deal, it makes 2025 even more important.
That’s because both LaFleur and Gutekunst enter this season with two years left on the contract extensions they signed in 2022. LaFleur, Gutekunst and executive vice president/director of football operations Russ Ball will all report to the team president, continuing a structure outgoing president Mark Murphy put in place before the 2018 season.
“All three of them [are] under multi-year contracts,” Policy said of Ball, Gutekunst and LaFleur. “None of them are up at the end of this year. We won’t be doing anything going into this season.”
Shortly before Murphy took over in 2008, his predecessor Bob Harlan signed then-GM Ted Thompson to a contract extension to make sure the man he hired in 2005 would have security under the new president.
Policy will officially take over for the retiring Murphy, who turns 70 July 13, at the Packers’ annual shareholders meeting on July 25. Team bylaws require the team president to retire at 70.
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In an interview with reporters who cover the Packers, Policy discussed how he will approach the job.
“I’m generally opposed — I’d never say never — [but] I’m generally opposed to a coach or GM going into the last year of their contract,” Policy said. “That creates a lot of issues. I think normally you have a pretty good idea of where that relationship is going when you have two years left — not always, but normally.
“So I think generally speaking I would avoid lame-duck status. It’s oftentimes difficult on everybody involved. But there are certain situations that probably call for it, so I would not say never.”
The Packers are coming off two straight playoff seasons — with a single postseason win — since transitioning to Jordan Love as the starting quarterback. Gutekunst said after last season that the Packers need to “ramp up our sense of urgency” and added, “I think it’s time we start competing for championships.”
Gutekunst has been the general manager since 2018, and LaFleur was hired a year later. Policy, who has been with the Packers since 2012 and most recently served as chief operating officer, was involved in the interview process for both hires, which were made by Murphy.
Before 2018, Murphy had continued former president Bob Harlan’s practice of hiring the general manager and then letting the GM handle all football decisions, including hiring the coach. Murphy changed that when he hired Gutekunst, in part to allow the first-year GM to focus only on roster building.
Policy said he planned to continue that structure to start the beginning of his tenure.
“We’ll do whatever it takes to win football games,” Policy said. “If that means changing the structure, then we’ll change the structure. Just like Mark was not wedded to the structure that he inherited when he came in, I would say I’m not wedded to the structure. We’ll do whatever is best for the Packers.”
Policy said he will “increase the amount and the time of formal meetings with football leadership” in an effort to facilitate communication between Ball, Gutekunst and LaFleur. One of the reasons Murphy set up that structure was because there were “silos” that he said caused “breakdowns in communication.”
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“I see the president’s role as it relates to football operations as really selecting football leadership, guiding them and giving them all the resources they need — and supporting them, evaluating them, and then ultimately holding them accountable,” Policy said. “Really, I think it’s important to let them do their jobs. These are exceptional people — all three of them. I’ve got great relationships with them.
“I’d stay out of their business. I would not meddle in what they do. I would communicate very frequently and openly and directly with them on all things, but certainly no team needs two head coaches or two GMs. Not a lot of change in the way Mark had done that.”
Since Gutekunst became GM, the Packers have a 73-42-1 record for the fourth-highest winning percentage in the NFL. LaFleur has a 67-33 record with five playoff appearances, including twice reaching the NFC Championship Game with Aaron Rodgers as quarterback.
The Packers are the NFL’s only publicly owned team with 538,967 stockholders, who have a combined 5,204,625 shares. The team’s articles of incorporation prohibit any single person from owning more than 200,000 shares — protection against someone attempting to control the team.
Policy, the 54-year-old son of former San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns president Carmen Policy, will become the head of the Packers’ seven-member executive committee. That committee is selected from the team’s 43-member board of directors.
Policy listed the three priorities he will have during his administration.
“Win football games, number one; keep the Packers in Green Bay, number two; and to strengthen our community, number three,” Policy said. “I’d say I even apply them in that order of priority. And so, really, every decision that we make here — to do something or not to do something — will be based on furthering one or more of those purposes.”
