The Packers' unique authoritative structure is in for a major test this offseason.

Despite fans nationwide bemoaning the sustained enabling of one Joe Barry, and the statistics showing that the defense continues to regress, Head Coach Matt LaFleur has continued to stay the course with his first hire for Defensive Coordinator. We've heard his usual excuses of needing to "look at the tape" and asserting that the defensive failures are "on him", but has yet to show any real improvement. While there is some hope a change could be made this offseason, LaFleur has shown no sign of possibly making a change at any point between now and the 2024 season.

Unfortunately, LaFleur has no stimuli to get him to act. If the Carolina Panthers, the league's worst offense scoring 30 on the defense, nearly coming away with an upset victory won't convince him, it's safe to say nothing ever will. The one thing that might've been able to push him was negated way back in 2018. Packers' CEO/President Mark Murphy created a flattened structure where General Manager Brian Gutekunst, VP of Football Operations Russ Ball, and LaFleur all reported directly to him; essentially making them all equals.

This restructure is a stark departure from the typical structure that the rest of the league follows, where the General Manager controls personnel moves, including the hiring of the head coach. In this structure, the GM would be able to fire the head coach due to performance. While I'm in no way suggesting LaFleur be fired, he is essentially tying his job security to Barry. I would say that LaFleur's job security is excellent currently, but should the Packers' winning ways not return in 2024, it wouldn't be unrealistic to say his seat would get warm in 2025 if the defense was routinely seen as the scapegoat for losses piling up.

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CheeseheadTV wrote:

I disagree with him, as he's making a lot of assumptions that I believe he can't know if they're true or not.

He likes Gute being in charge of LaFleur, because Gute can tell LaFleur to fire Barry. But he doesn't like Murphy in charge of LaFleur, because... he, as the sports writer, is not comfortable?

He doesn't need to be comfortable, as he has absolutely nothing to do with he process, he's not in it.

Also, he assumes Gute would make that move, which that assumption might be correct, or it might be totally wrong.

For all we know, Murphy might be more likely to pull that trigger than Gute.


And putting them as equals might force them to work together more, since they'll probably get fired together.

I think I prefer the old set up better, because it's.more of how the entire NFL is set up... and Murphy has talked about how HE can do this properly, because he's actually a football guy.

But Murphy is retiring soon... what if the guy that follows him, is NOT a football guy? Then shouldn't it be back in the old setup, if a being a football guy at President is why it could work.


As for FAs, from what I've picked it, FAs pick the best spots for them based on
1) Money/Contracts
2a) State/Local Taxes
2b) Weather/Cool Big City things that you can do
2c) How they feel they'll fit with scheme/players already on the team

Let's be honest, if Packers don't win #1, they're not getting that FA, as there is no way they're winning #2, even if they have the best scheme/coach.


So in my opinion, this article is all about the writer making wild assumptions about how HE feels most comfortable based on his assumptions of how executive will react... which might be totally false.


It's like me saying.before the season, I feel very comfortable that Watson will be the first WR with an 100 yard game this season, and if not him, Doubs or Reed.

But in actually, it's Melton. I didn't feel comfortable with that option, but that option was the best for getting the answer correct.

Originally Posted by: beast