Center. Guard. Tackle. Quarterback? Pro Bowler Jenkins Does It All
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers offensive lineman Elgton Jenkins, who has started games at left guard, center and right tackle and also played left tackle this season, was selected to his first Pro Bowl this week.
If he were the coach, where would he line himself up at?
“I’d play quarterback,” Jenkins said on Wednesday. “Just knowing defenses and stuff like that, with the arm I’ve got, I feel like I could sling it around, break a couple records.”
Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett couldn’t vouch for Jenkins’ arm talent but he could speak highly about Jenkins’ overall talent.
“The way he’s been, we could put him out at wide receiver maybe,” Hackett said.
Jenkins became the first Green Bay offensive lineman to start a game at guard, center and tackle in the same season since the 1970 merger. Having played well at all three spots, Jenkins joined Washington’s Brandon Scherff and New Orleans’ Andrus Peat as the NFC guards. Jenkins and Scherff are the starters.
He got the news from general manager Brian Gutekunst.
“It was early in the morning (and) he told me I made the Pro Bowl,” Jenkins said. “I was kind of shocked for a minute. I asked him what he said. He was like, ‘Yeah, you made the Pro Bowl. …
“I’m just blessed, man. It comes from hard work, just trying to be the best person I can, on the field, off the field and getting the job done. Hopefully for the next however many years, it keeps happening.”
That last sentence probably is music to Pro Bowl left tackle David Bakhtiari’s ears. Last year's all-rookie honors and this year's Pro Bowl should be mile markers, not destinations, for last year’s second-round pick.
“Very happy for him – happy for his career, his trajectory,” Bakhtiari said as part of the accompanying video. “I just keep preaching to him: ‘Hey, by no means have you made it. For what you can accomplish, it’s a nice accolade on your journey.’ That’s one thing I try to keep pressing on him because I see a lot more things in his future and I want to make sure he can obtain all of them.”
According to Pro Football Focus, of the 55 guards to play at least half of the team’s passing plays, Jenkins ranks fourth in pass-blocking efficiency, a metric that measures sacks, hits and hurries per pass-protecting snap.
According to Sports Info Solutions, Jenkins ranks 17th among guards with a blown-block rate of 1.4 percent. Of his 12 blown blocks – defined as any time a lineman does not successfully block his defender and allows that defender to make a negative play – eight came against Atlanta and Tampa Bay in the fourth and fifth games of the season. In the last nine games, he has only three.
With quality play and incredible versatility, Jenkins became the first lineman from the 40-blocker-strong 2019 draft class – including the 10 drafted ahead of him – to be selected for the annual all-star game.
The first person he told was his mom.
“She was real happy, hollering on the phone and things like that,” he said. “She was real pumped up. She probably called me around five or six times before they announced it on TV and just was like, ‘Man, you really made the Pro Bowl. You really made the Pro Bowl.’ She was real pumped up and happy.”
