GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst and executive vice president/director of football operations Russ Ball have joined coach Matt LaFleur in signing multi-year contract extensions.
Packers president/CEO Ed Policy announced the extensions for all three on Friday.
The extensions come after the Packers went 9-8-1 and made their third straight playoff appearance, and sixth in the last seven years. A 31-27 loss at Chicago in the NFC wild-card playoff round capped a five-game skid that ended Green Bay’s season, though one of those defeats came when the Packers rested their starters in their regular-season finale.
“We are excited to extend our commitment to Brian, Matt and Russ as the leaders of our football operations,” Policy said in a statement. “Their steadfast dedication, passion and collaboration have remained constant in our drive to compete at the highest level. While we are all disappointed with the way this season ended, we remain aligned in purpose and have spent considerable time over the past weeks collaborating on a path forward.
“I am exceedingly confident we have the right people to achieve our goal. The entire Packers organization looks forward to supporting every effort to bring our community and fans another championship that they very much deserve.”
LaFleur owns a 76-40-1 regular-season record and has led Green Bay to the playoffs in all but one of his seven years on the job. That includes NFC championship game appearances in the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Green Bay has been the NFC’s seventh and final playoff seed each of the last three seasons.
Gutekunst has been part of Green Bay’s front office for 27 seasons. Ball is entering his 38th season in the NFL and 19th in Green Bay. Both were named to their current positions in January 2018, one year before LaFleur’s arrival.
Gutekunst made the bold move to trade up in the first round of the 2020 draft to select Utah State quarterback Jordan Love when the Packers already had Aaron Rodgers on their roster. After Rodgers went on to win his third and fourth MVP awards in the 2020 and 2021 seasons, Gutekunst traded him to the New York Jets in April 2023 as the Packers made Love their starting quarterback.
The Packers have reached the playoffs in each of Love’s three seasons as a starter, though they haven’t advanced beyond the divisional round. Green Bay’s 2023 and 2024 squads were the youngest teams in terms of weighted age to reach the playoffs from 1980-2024, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
Gutekunst also executed the 2025 trade that brought All-Pro pass rusher Micah Parsons to Green Bay. The Packers sent veteran defensive tackle Kenny Clark to Dallas and also gave up their 2026 and 2027 first-round draft picks to acquire Parsons, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament on Dec. 14 and missed the rest of the 2025 season.
