4 Green Bay Packers on the hot seat entering Week 18

The Green Bay Packers control their own destiny heading into Week 18 of the 2023 NFL season. If they win against the Chicago Bears, the Packers are going to do in the first season of the Jordan Love era what they couldn't do in the final season of the Aaron Rodgers era: Make the playoffs.

Even if the Packers lose, there are a couple of paths into the postseason, but they would need a bit of help. Anytime there's this much at stake, you're going to have some key pieces of the team on the hot seat.

It's in these kinds of situations where you look to your top guys to come through in a big spot, and I think that puts some obvious pressure on a number of Packers players and coaches.

Besides just their playoff chances, what Green Bay Packers are on the hot seat entering Week 18?

4. Matt LaFleur

And no, I don't mean that Matt LaFleur is on the hot seat as in, "fired," but I think this is a pressure-packed situation for LaFleur. The Packers' brain trust of LaFleur and GM Brian Gutekunst stuck their necks out for Jordan Love over the last handful of years. The end of the Aaron Rodgers era was messy, and I would say Love has delivered despite some rocky moments this season.

With that being said, the NFL is not just a quarterback show-and-tell. Matt LaFleur is in the position he's in to win games, make the playoffs, and be a contender. The Packers won't win the NFC North this season, but making the playoffs in the first year of the Jordan Love era would be a huge notch on LaFleur's belt.

If the Packers lose this game -- at home -- LaFleur is really going to enter the 2024 season on the hot seat with fans and media breathing down his neck. This team last made the playoffs in 2021. They last won a playoff game in 2020. Depending on how harshly you look at the end of Aaron Rodgers's time in Green Bay, this game might be critically important for LaFleur's future and how he's perceived in Green Bay.