Hello Wisconsin: Picking Up the Pieces After a Disastrous End

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Hello Wisconsin: Picking Up the Pieces After a Disastrous End

The Packers must come to a quick decision about their coaching situation.

Jan 15, 2026

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It’s been five days since the Packers’ stunning loss to the Chicago Bears that capped an inexplicable second-half collapse, something that has become routine under the stewardship of Matt LaFleur.

The days since have been filled with blame, analysis, and speculation about the future. I’m not particularly interested in talking much about the game itself at this point; by now, all of us have had our fill, and who really wants to think about it any more anyway?

But permit me to add a bit more to the speculation side of things, specifically with regard to the direction the Packers will take with the head coaching position.

First, let me be plain: if I were Ed Policy, Matt LaFleur would not be coaching the Green Bay Packers in 2026.

This is a departure for me, though a position I’ve been drifting toward over the course of the season. I’ve never straight up called for LaFleur to be fired, but there have been times throughout this season where i was close. At this point, I, like many others, have come to the conclusion that LaFleur has proven to have too prominent of a propensity for collapse. To lose so many games the team has led in late is inexcusable; to do so twice to the freaking Chicago Bears in less than a month is unforgivable.

LaFleur has made a lot of positive contributions in his time with the team and I do think he is a good coach who would quickly find work elsewhere, but the time has come to part ways. It has become clear the team has achieved its ceiling under his leadership, and unless the goal is more seventh seeds and early playoff exits, there is little reason for me to have confidence in him as the leader of the team moving forward. Sometimes the difficult choice in the short term is the right choice in the long term.

Now, all that being said, it’s going to be fascinating to see what decision the Packers actually make. If LaFleur weren’t going to be a lame duck going into 2026, I think it would be a simple choice for Policy: let LaFleur have another year under his contract to prove that it was just the injuries that did this team in.

But as it is, LaFleur’s contract comes to an end after the 2026 season, and teams are extremely hesitant to allow coaches to operate on a single-year deal. There are a variety of reasons for this, one of the biggest of which being that it is very hard to assemble a good assistant coaching staff if candidates are worried that the head coach might not be around much longer.

As I’ve written multiple times before, dating back to my frustrations with LaFleur in the middle of the season, the Packers have two options: extend or move on, whether that be a mutual parting of the ways, a termination, or even a trade.

Extending may be easier said than done. LaFleur knows he could get a hell of a lot more money on the open market than what he’d get by staying in Green Bay, which gives him leverage in negotiations. Justis Mosqueda’s reporting for Acme Packing Company indicates LaFleur was hired at a rate of around $5 million annually and he still is less than $10 million. Meanwhile, top head coaching candidate John Harbaugh is expected to command a salary in the neighborhood of $20 million.

Herein lies the dilemma for the historically cheap Packers: if they want to keep LaFleur, they’re going to have to pay.

Perhaps Policy does still have some belief in LaFleur. But perhaps that level of belief doesn’t extend to a market-rate contract. To that end, even if Policy’s preference leans toward bringing back LaFleur, he might not find it worth the money to do so.

If Policy had complete faith in LaFleur, there wouldn’t need to be much of a negotiation; he’d pay the money necessary to bring him back to Green Bay. But as ESPN’s Adam Schefter has been reporting all week, the Packers and LaFleur continue to work through talks to “potentially” bring him back. This means the Packers clearly have at least some reservations with LaFleur. But those reservations are not so significant that they’re willing to just cut ties.

So, reading between the lines, here’s where we’re at: the Packers want LaFleur back, but not so much that they’re unwilling to let him walk for more money. It’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of LaFleur.

Whatever the resolution might turn out to be, it’s going to have to happen quickly. The other coaching positions are going to start filling up, and candidates aren’t going to wait around to figure out what the Packers are going to do while premium landing places like Baltimore and Pittsburgh are suddenly available.

Both the Packers and LaFleur, then, should be motivated to come to a quick arrangement. The Packers need to make sure they have a good coaching situation, and LaFleur needs to make sure he’s not left out of the coaching puzzle should he be allowed to walk.

Best guess: the two sides manage to figure it out, and LaFleur is back in 2026.

But with this being the deepest coaching bench in recent memory for a hiring cycle, it sure feels as though the Packers are missing a prime opportunity to take a new direction and avoid a situation where they trap themselves underneath a low ceiling for several more seasons in what should be the prime of Jordan Love’s blossoming career.

Wisconsin Beer of the Week

In my most recent trip to Woodman’s, I was looking for some styles of beer I haven’t had in a while. It’s been quite a bit since I purchased a belgian, let alone a belgian quad, and when I saw Veneration by 3 Sheeps (based out of Sheboygan), I was instantly sold.

Here’s how the brewery describes it:

“Veneration is an homage to the Trappist Brewers of Belgium, the monastic forefathers of beer. To innovate on their traditions, we took a true-to-style Belgian Quad, added figs and molasses, and aged the whole thing in rye whiskey barrels. The result is a complex beer that’s full of flavor and worthy of the monks that inspired us. We couldn’t think of a better way to express our veneration.”

As you’d expect for the style, this one’s a heavy one. It comes in at 13.2 percent ABV, but its sweet maltiness makes it surprisingly smooth. Highly, highly recommend for fans of belgian quads and barrel aged beers; this one blends the flavors seamlessly. A truly outstanding brew.

Grab it now – it’s in liquor stores and in season!

I’ll be surprised if Jeff Hafley gets a head coaching job

There’s been a lot of talk throughout the regular season that Jeff Hafley would be a hot name in the coaching market this offseason. Well, that was before the team’s defense fell apart after the loss of Micah Parsons, and before names like John Harbaugh, Kevin Stefanski, and Mike Tomlin suddenly became available, in addition to expected hot coordinator names like Brian Flores, Jesse Minter, and more.

There are nine head coaching openings, which is certainly a large number, second in recent memory only to the 10 in 2022 (eight of those 10 hirees have since been fired, by the way). But Hafley doesn’t have a whole lot of NFL experience on his resume, and his head coaching stint at Boston College wasn’t exactly wildly successful.

If reports are true that Tomlin will take at least a year off coaching to go into television, that takes one top name off the list. But there are a whole lot of other candidates out there seeking employment, which means that even in a year with a lot of openings, Hafley might not be a standout option.

That being said, he’s definitely at least drawing interest. Hafley has interviewed with the Titans and Dolphins, and at the time of this writing has interviews scheduled with the Falcons, Raiders, and Cardinals. This means he’ll have interviewed with five of the nine teams with openings.

My best guess right now: he misses out on an opening and comes back for another year with Green Bay next season.

Unfortunately, though, a lot of the initial hype and excitement surrounding Hafley’s work has evaporated after the stench of the team’s final five games.

End of an era

Speaking of coaching openings, how fitting it is that both Harbaugh and Tomlin ended their long-time tenures at the same time.

The Steelers hired Tomlin in 2007, and Harbaugh went to the Ravens in 2008. They have had a whole lot of pretty epic battles in the years since, including an AFC Championship bout in Harbaugh’s first year there, as well as several other playoff contests.

It’s rare that teams are as patient with coaches as the Steelers and Ravens were with both of these men. Harbaugh’s Ravens had to reinvent themselves several times over the years to remain competitive, going from a run-first, hard-nosed defensive team to a highlight reel offensive team under Lamar Jackson. Tomlin never had a losing season in 19 years, which is a pretty remarkable accomplishment, even with the seven consecutive one-and-dones.

The NFL looked very different when both of these men were hired. Offenses and defenses both changed; rule changes have made playing defense harder than ever. The collective bargaining agreement in 2011 fundamentally changed the sport and the way franchises operate. And they’ve been constants through that whole time.

Harbaugh will be coaching next year; Tomlin likely will not. But their ends in their respective jobs mark a clear close to a bygone era of football.

Around the NFC North

As always, it’s time to go around the NFC North.

The CHICAGO BEARS have certainly succeeded in upping the ante in terms of the intensity of their rivalries this year. One thing’s for sure: every single Packer fan will enter next season hating this Bears team much more after their antics following their last two dramatic victories over the Green and Gold. Ben Johnson has turned around the team’s culture in a single season, but getting back to this point may be difficult given the Bears’ financial situation and their first-place schedule in 2026.
The DETROIT LIONS watched the first round of the playoffs from the couch, which is their natural habitat in January and February.
The MINNESOTA VIKINGS suck.

Mr. Backes’s “This or That”

Every day I put a different “this or that” poll up on my whiteboard and have students leave tallies throughout the day. I then compile this information and post it here for laughs.

STEM defeated arts (this hurt my soul)
Dab defeated whip and nae nae
Sour patch defeated Skittles
Owala defeated Stanley

Divisional Round Picks

Looking forward to this weekend’s games. The divisional round often offers the best quality football of the year, but the wild card round will be tough to beat – especially those first four games.

BUFFALO over Denver – This just feels like the Bills may finally be a team of destiny, and I trust their playoff experience over Denver’s. They finally got off the schneid with road playoff games, and Denver is certainly a tough place to play, but Buffalo’s offense is significantly better than Denver’s, and I expect that to be the difference.

HOUSTON over New England – This is going to be a tense matchup that I’m very much looking forward to. Given how Houston’s defense has been playing lately, I find it very hard to pick against them; they have all the ingredients needed to make a deep run.

LOS ANGELES over Chicago – The Bears’ horseshoe run comes to an end against a team that is superior in basically every regard.

SEATTLE over San Francisco – The 49ers have a lot of grit to have made it this far, but the Seahawks earned that #1 seed and will reinforce just how much they deserved it with a win this weekend.

Setting up a conference championship round with:

Houston at Buffalo

Los Angeles at Seattle

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Tim Backes is a lifelong Packer fan and a contributor to CheeseheadTV. Follow him on Twitter @timbackes for his Packer takes, random musings and Untappd beer check-ins.

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