The Green Bay Packers are soon set for a change in the front office, as Ed Policy will replace the retiring Mark Murphy as the franchise's president and CEO on July 15. Now, before we move on, we do have to ask one question: Is there a better name for any kind of executive than Ed Policy? I mean, seriously.
And if that last name sounds familiar to NFL fans, it should, as his father, Carmen Policy, held several front-office positions with the San Francisco 49ers from 1981 to 1997, helping the franchise to all five of its Super Bowl victories before helping the Cleveland Browns rejoin the league as president and minority owner, roles he held until 2004.
But I digress.
The younger Policy, who's been with Green Bay since 2012, has no immediate plans—with a significant emphasis on the word "immediate"—to change the team structure that's been in place since 2018, which sees the GM, head coach, and executive vice president all reporting directly to the CEO, which means Brian Gutekunst, Matt LaFleur, and Russ Ball, respectively, will all now report to Policy, who wants to let all of them do their jobs without micromanaging.
Gutekunst and LaFleur have the most say in personnel decisions regarding the roster, both have just two years remaining on their respective contracts.
And while Policy recently told the media that he has no plans to extend either at this time, he also doesn't want either to be a lame duck come next season, which effectively means that both will either get extended after the upcoming 2025 campaign, or, if things don't go well for the Packers, both could be fired.
How's that for a little pressure?
Could Brian Gutekunst and Matt LaFleur really be fired if the Packers don't win the Super Bowl?
Since Gutekunst took over as Green Bay's general manager ahead of the 2018 season, the Packers have compiled a 73-42-1 regular-season record, earning the franchise the fourth-highest winning percentage in the NFL during that span.
LaFleur was hired a season after Gutekunst's arrival, a decision Policy helped make, and has gone 67-33 during the regular season, also leading the Packers to five playoff appearances in his six seasons.
Those first two appearances, of course, culminated in an NFC title game appearance, both of which resulted in losses. And both of those, of course, came with Aaron Rodgers under center.
Since then, however, the Packers have failed to advance past the Divisional Round, going 1-3 in the postseason over the last four years. Yes, Green Bay underwent the significant transition from Rodgers to Jordan Love and had the youngest team in the NFL for the past two years.
But everyone, including Policy, is ready for the franchise to start contending for the Lombardi Trophy again. And if that means changing the aforementioned structure of how the franchise is run, so be it.
"We'll do whatever it takes to win football games," Policy said. "If that means changing the structure, then we'll change the structure. Just like Mark was not wedded to the structure that he inherited when he came in, I would say I'm not wedded to the structure. We'll do whatever is best for the Packers."
"I see the president's role as it relates to football operations as really selecting football leadership, guiding them and giving them all the resources they need -- and supporting them, evaluating them, and then ultimately holding them accountable."
One would think it would take an absolute disaster of a season for LaFleur and Gutekunst to get the boot. But Policy is clearly serious about taking things to the next level, which genuinely stood out with this particular statement on his top three priorities:
"Win football games, number one; keep the Packers in Green Bay, number two; and to strengthen our community, number three," Policy said. "I'd say I even apply them in that order of priority. And so, really, every decision that we make here -- to do something or not to do something -- will be based on furthering one or more of those purposes."
Winning football games takes priority over keeping the Packers in Green Bay? If that's not putting a little heat on seats, I'm not sure what does.