The Green Bay Packers will enter the 2026 offseason with more questions than answers. Several impending unrestricted free agents — including starters like Romeo Doubs, Sean Rhyan, Rasheed Walker, and Quay Walker — should test the open market. At the same time, the coaching staff may not remain intact. Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley is expected to interview for multiple head-coaching vacancies in the coming days.
The first question Green Bay must address this offseason is its coaching staff. Everything starts with coaching. For proof of that, look no further than what Ben Johnson, Mike Vrabel, and Liam Coen accomplished in their first seasons as head coaches.
Johnson and Vrabel each took teams that finished last in their divisions and turned them into division champions. Coen engineered one of the league’s biggest turnarounds, leading the Jacksonville Jaguars to a 13–4 record after they finished 4-13 last year. Coaching changes don’t guarantee success, but the right staff can alter a franchise’s trajectory almost overnight.
Today, we are not going to focus specifically on the head coach position because the Packers and Matt LaFleur are working toward a contract extension. Instead, let’s examine the coaching staff around him, which will need to undergo meaningful changes for Green Bay to take the next step next season.
First and foremost, the Rich Bisaccia experiment has long since expired. This season, Green Bay finished 29th in special-teams DVOA, and the unit has ranked 30th overall during Bisaccia’s four-year tenure.
The Packers can no longer afford to neglect special teams after repeated failures, particularly in the postseason. Those issues directly contributed to playoff losses against the San Francisco 49ers in 2021 (before they hired Bisaccia), in 2023, and most recently resurfaced in the Wild Card loss to the Chicago Bears.
Green Bay has already gone through three different special teams coordinators during LaFleur’s seven seasons as head coach, and reports suggest the Packers could be headed toward a fourth. That’s the correct move. In fact, the same conclusion could have been reached at the end of the 2024 season.
The Packers could also use a shake-up on the offensive side of the ball. Green Bay’s offensive line was the biggest disappointment of the unit in 2025, especially considering the level of investment Brian Gutekunst made in it. According to Pro Football Focus, the Packers posted their worst pass-protection rankings of the Matt LaFleur era, and the worst by a Green Bay offensive line in the past 12 years.
Luke Butkus has been in charge of Green Bay’s offensive line since 2022. The Packers hired him in 2019 as an assistant offensive line coach when LaFleur arrived, before promoting him to the lead role three years later.
Overall, his work has been solid, but the results in 2025 were poor enough that it’s difficult to justify bringing him back. Given the level of investment and the sharp decline in pass protection, standing pat would signal comfort with regression rather than a commitment to improvement.
LaFleur should also consider a new voice at offensive coordinator. Adam Stenavich currently holds the title, but LaFleur remains the primary play caller on game days. Bringing in a veteran offensive mind could help refine the offense’s structure, particularly in areas where Green Bay consistently struggled in 2025.
Red-zone efficiency and short-yardage situations were major issues, and those shortcomings point more to planning and situational design than to execution. Someone with a proven track record in high-leverage scoring areas — such as Nathaniel Hackett, who was part of Green Bay’s staff in 2020 when the team explicitly referred to the red zone as the “gold zone” — could provide a different perspective and help clean up the details that repeatedly stalled possessions.
More importantly, Green Bay should build any red-zone approach around Jordan Love. Last season, the Packers ranked 26th in red-zone pass rate, despite Love finishing seventh among 42 qualified quarterbacks in red-zone EPA per play. The ball needs to be in Love’s hands when Green Bay gets inside the 20. A coordinator who can help tailor red-zone and short-yardage plans around the quarterback’s strengths could unlock points that the Packers routinely left on the field in 2025.
On defense, Green Bay will likely need a new linebackers coach. Sean Duggan holds that role. He was a defensive assistant with the team in 2024 before they promoted him in 2025, and it’s fair to say the results have not matched the promotion. Too often, opposing offenses found it easy to attack the middle of the field, with linebackers consistently playing at least 10 yards off the ball and arriving late to the point of contact.
To put Green Bay’s coaching staff into proper perspective, look at the contrast with the San Francisco 49ers. The Niners’ offensive line coach, Chris Foerster, has three decades of experience as an NFL on-field coach. Their linebackers coach, Johnny Holland, brings 20 years of experience at the professional level.
By comparison, Green Bay’s entire offensive and defensive coaching staff combined has just 24 years of NFL experience outside of Green Bay. That gap matters.
If the Packers are serious about operating like a Super Bowl contender, whoever they add to the staff needs to come from the outside — coaches with proven expertise and experience. Championship teams are built not only with talent on the roster but also with veteran teachers on the sidelines.