GREEN BAY, Wis. — Less than two weeks after signing coach Matt LaFleur to a contract extension, the Green Bay Packers have done the same with general manager Brian Gutekunst and executive vice president/director of football operations Russ Ball.
The Packers announced all three deals Friday, although the LaFleur deal had been previously reported by ESPN on Jan. 17. The team called them multiyear contract extensions. All three previously had contracts only through the upcoming season.
It wraps up the first series of major decisions by team president Ed Policy, who took over last July.
“We are excited to extend our commitment to Brian, Matt and Russ as the leaders of our football operations. Their steadfast dedication, passion and collaboration have remained constant in our drive to compete at the highest level,” Policy said in a statement. “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.”
Team sources said LaFleur, Gutekunst and Ball will all continue to report directly to Policy. When Gutekunst was hired in 2018, then-president Mark Murphy went to that organizational structure. Before 2018 and dating to the early 1990s, the Packers’ head coach had reported to the general manager, who could fire and hire the coach.
Gutekunst was hired to replace the late Ted Thompson. A longtime scout with the Packers, Gutekunst worked his way through the ranks of the personnel department — from area college scout in 1998 to director of college scouting in 2012 to director of player personnel in 2016.
The Packers have an 82-49-2 record under Gutekunst — including 74-60-1 with LaFleur as coach.
Among Gutekunst’s notable moves as GM was trading up to take quarterback Jordan Love in the first round of the 2020 draft while Aaron Rodgers was still on the roster. Rodgers would go on to win two more MVPs while Love sat on the bench. Gutekunst then traded Rodgers to the New York Jets in spring 2023 and turned things over to Love.
On Aug. 28, Gutekunst traded two first-round picks (plus defensive tackle Kenny Clark) to the Cowboys for edge rusher Micah Parsons. It marked the first time the Packers had traded a first-round pick for a player since Ron Wolf did so for quarterback Brett Favre in 1992.
Gutekunst has had mixed results with his first-round picks, hitting on the likes of Love, cornerback Jaire Alexander (2018), linebacker Quay Walker (2022) and defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt (2022), but missing on the likes of DE Rashan Gary (2019) and CB Eric Stokes (2021). The jury is still out on DE Lukas Van Ness (2023), G Jordan Morgan (2024) and WR Matthew Golden (2025).
Gutekunst, 52, who played college football and the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, came from the Wolf scouting tree, which also included future GMs John Schneider, Reggie McKenzie, Scot McCloughan, John Dorsey, Eliot Wolf and Thompson.
Jon-Eric Sullivan was the first of Gutekunst’s assistants to become a GM when the Dolphins hired him earlier this month. Ball, 66, has been with the Packers since 2008. His primary responsibility is to negotiate contracts and manage the salary cap.
Before any deals were done, Policy met extensively with LaFleur, Gutekunst and Ball — both individually and as a group — in the days after their collapsing loss to the Bears in the NFC wild-card round of the playoffs, a game in which the Packers blew a 21-3 lead. It was after all three reaffirmed their commitment to the team that contract negotiations began, according to a source.
The extensions for Gutekunst and Ball came after Policy completed negotiations with LaFleur. Policy needed to get LaFleur’s deal done first so he could proceed with filling out his coaching staff.
