Packers Coaching Staff Taking Shape

Coaching Staff Taking Shape: Who’s In, Who’s Out

After the season ended, it was unclear how much turnover the Packers would endure. on Matt LaFleur’s coaching staff. Over the last few weeks, a lot has been learned about what Green Bay’s 2026 staff will look like. LaFleur signed an extension to remain the head coach for the foreseeable future. Jeff Hafley landed a head coaching job, and as expected, he’s bringing a number of Green Bay coaching personnel with him.

In addition to coach staff turnover, there has been turnover in the front office department. The Packers have lost front office executive Jon-Eric Sullivan, pro scout Venzell Boulware, and scouting consultant James Campen. The Packers have seen plenty of movement already, but they have started to fill some of the holes.

Most of the coaching turnover has come on the defensive side of the ball. The offensive staff hasn’t seen nearly as many changes yet, but there’s still plenty of time for that to change. With some new guys coming in and others going out, the coaching carousel is already spinning, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.

Let’s take a look at what changes Green Bay has had thus far.

Brian Gutekunst Ready To Stay The Course

CHTV co-founder Aaron Nagler chats with Packers fans worldwide after hearing from general manager Brian Gutekunst regarding the team's 2025 season.

Can The Packers Afford More Change Along The Offensive Line?

Heading into 2026, there’s a good chance there will be at least three new starters along the offensive line, and maybe even four.

Elgton Jenkins is all but guaranteed to be cut in order to free up $20 million dollars of badly needed cap space. He’ll be looking for a new team in the coming months, and will be joined by Rasheed Walker. He had the chance to convince the Packers to retain him, despite having already drafted his successor in Jordan Morgan. But don’t worry, even with the disappointing contract year in Green Bay, PFF estimates his next contract to fall along the range of four years, $84 million dollars. Goes to show how desperate teams around the league are for offensive linemen (and how Green Bay cannot afford to get that desperate).

Next up is Sean Rhayn, also slated for free agency in the near future. He could be back in Green Bay, but it’d be at center instead of right guard, where he started the 2025 season. I do think the Packers will find a way to make it work with Rhyan, with say, a two year contract extension.

So we have a new starter at left tackle (Jordan Morgan), right guard (Anthony Belton), and center (Sean Rhayn?) How could it all play out?

Which Day 3 QB Could the Packers Steal in the Draft?

The road to the 2026 NFL Draft rolls on at Cheesehead TV as Newt Westen is joined by draft analyst and Cheesehead TV Draft Guide contributor Dom C to zero in on one of the most important — and overlooked — positions in the draft: Day 3 quarterbacks.

Is There a Significant Difference for the 3-4 or 4-3?

For the third time under head coach Matt LaFleur, the Green Bay Packers will have a new defensive coordinator. Starting in 2026, Jonathan Gannon will be LaFleur’s fourth defensive coordinator. The three previous coaches to have the position under LaFleur are Mike Pettine (2019-2020), Joe Barry (2021-2023) and Jeff Hafley (2024-2025).

Pettine was a holdover from the Mike McCarthy era, where he replaced Dom Capers after Capers served as defensive coordinator for nine seasons (2009-2017).

Under Hafley, the Packers made the transition from a “3-4” defense to a “4-3” defense. With Gannon being in charge now, will the defense look more like Hafley’s? Or will it be more of a 3-4 team like it was in the previous 15 seasons under Capers, Pettine and Barry.

The reality of today’s NFL is teams run nickel defense the majority of defensive snaps, so what is the difference if the alignment is a 2-4-5 (two down lineman, four linebackers and five DB’s) or a 4-2-5 (four linemen, two linebackers and five DB’s).

Is it that much of a difference if the edge rushers in the front six are considered defensive ends or linebackers? Are the front four having their hands in the ground or standing up in a two-point stance?

Of the current players, clearly the guy for Gannon to plan his defense around is Micah Parsons. In Parsons, the Packers have one of the most versatile edge players in the entire league. He was great as a “defensive end” for Hafley, but he also flourished as a “linebacker” with the Cowboys.

With the way Parsons moves around, it’s hard not to see similarities to how Clay Matthews was used by Capers in his first few seasons. Parsons also could be the linebacker who rushes like Reddick was for Gannon when he racked up sacks for the 2022 Eagles.

Don’t Be Surprised if Packers Mostly Stand Pat at Cornerback

The cornerback position has been in the spotlight in Green Bay ever since it became fairly clear the Packers intended to move on from Jaire Alexander at this time a year ago.

Brian Gutekunst was vindicated in cutting Alexander, who is currently out of the league after a forgettable spell with the Ravens, but his plan to remodel the cornerback room had its ups and downs to say the least.

Signing Nate Hobbs was the big move, costing Green Bay $48m in free agency last offseason. His season never really got off the ground as he dealt with injuries from training camp onwards, and when he was on the field, the results were not what the Packers would have hoped.

Carrington Valentine did not take a step in his third season, and Keisean Nixon continued to be a lightning rod of conversation within the fanbase (even if his overall performance was nowhere near as bad as many think).

All that has meant cornerback is back in the spotlight for the Packers ahead of the 2026 season, with fans wondering what Gutekunst will do to augment the position.

Do not be surprised if the answer is: not much.

What Should the Packers Do with Rashan Gary: Restructure or Release?

The Green Bay Packers have a decision to make this offseason regarding former first-round pick Rashan Gary. Ultimately, GM Brian Gutekunst has to decide whether the Packers should release the former Michigan star outright or restructure his contract and keep him on the roster.

The 2025 season was a disappointing one for Gary. He was expected to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of Micah Parsons’ addition to the defense. The theory went that if opposing teams double team Parsons and slide their protection to his side, Gary will see single coverage and be able to take advantage of the opportunities that would result.

In the early part of the season, it worked very well. Gary recorded 7.5 sacks in the first seven games of the year. He was getting good pressure on opposing quarterbacks and had recorded seven tackles for loss in those first seven games. Gary needed just two more sacks to tie his career high for a season and 2.5 more to reach double digit sacks for the first time in his NFL career.

But in the final 10 games, Gary’s production dropped significantly. He did not record a sack or a tackle for loss in those final 10 games. In the first seven games, Gary recorded 13 quarterback hits. In the last 10 games, he recorded just seven. His snap counts started to drop after his production did.

The challenge for Gutekunst and Gary would be to find a fair salary and cap hit that would benefit both player and team. A restructuring would not save the Packers as much money as either release option, but it would push the dead cap money further down the road and allow the Packers to keep Gary on their roster in 2026 if they feel that’s worthwhile.

The decision won’t be an easy one. Ultimately, it’s more likely that Gary will be released at some point this offseason. But Gutekunst has to determine what the best option is for the Green Bay Packers.

Matt LaFleur’s Top 10 Signature Wins

Despite the five-game slide and embarrassing playoff collapse to end the season, Green Bay Packers team president Ed Policy proved that he’d made up his mind on a Matt LaFleur extension long ago, giving the 46-year-old head coach a chance to surpass Mike Holmgren’s 84 career wins in the green and gold, Vince Lombardi’s 98, and maybe even Mike McCarthy’s 135 (the length of LaFleur’s contract extension hasn’t been released yet). Count yours truly among those who think that LaFleur and his fear of such daunting fan engagement as “the wave” will never come close to sniffing Curly Lambeau’s team record 212 wins.

Personal takes aside, the fact is that Matt LaFleur is the head man in Green Bay and likely will be for the rest of the Jordan Love / Micah Parsons window, barring a catastrophic 3-14 kind of failure.

In that spirit, we wanted to take a look at the resume-building wins that the 8th-year playcaller has compiled since coming to Titletown.

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