Packers Have Questions to Tackle on Offensive Line

With a hole at right tackle, Green Bay Packers GM Brian Gutekunst delivered an interesting line about Yosh Nijman at the NFL spring meetings.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst blamed himself for stunting Yosh Nijman’s growth in the past.

Will he stunt Nijman’s growth again?

With two weeks of NFL free agency complete, the Packers have a hole at right tackle. To maneuver through the team’s salary-cap problems, Gutekunst released veteran starter Billy Turner. Signed in 2019, Turner flourished as the team’s right tackle the past two seasons.

With a hole at that spot, Gutekunst could re-sign Dennis Kelly or add some other veteran to fill the void. He could use one of his first- or second-round draft picks for a plug-and-play starter. Or, he could hand the job to Nijman, either full-time or until Elgton Jenkins returns from his torn ACL.

Nijman was one of the great stories of last season. An undrafted free agent in 2019, he hadn’t played a single meaningful snap from scrimmage before offensive line coach Adam Stenavich picked him to replace Jenkins at left tackle for the Week 3 game against Nick Bosa and the 49ers. Nijman held his own in that game and really became an asset.

He wound up starting eight games. Of the 58 offensive tackles to play at least Nijman’s 590 snaps, he finished 31st in PFF’s pass blocking efficiency with three sacks and 20 total pressures. He faced a gauntlet of great rushers, including Bosa, Cincinnati’s Trey Hendrickson (first in pressures from the defense’s right side), Cleveland’s Myles Garrett (second) and Chicago’s Robert Quinn (fourth). Plus, he generally was an asset in the run game.

“With Yosh, first of all, you’ve got to give him a lot of credit through the last three years just his work ethic and his consistency working,” Gutekunst told reporters at the NFL’s spring meetings in Palm Beach, Fla., on Monday.

“I think he just needed an opportunity. It’s probably as much my fault as anybody. We kept bringing in veteran guys at tackle to shore up kind of that third tackle spot, which never really gave him the opportunity. Once he got the opportunity, he certainly performed exceptionally well. So, very proud of him and his work ethic and what he accomplished when he was given the opportunity.”

While there’s a potential hole at right tackle, there’s also some mystery at left tackle. David Bakhtiari, the five-time All-Pro, missed almost all of last season with the torn ACL sustained on Dec. 31, 2020.

Gutekunst believes last season will be just a blip on the radar and Bakhtiari – who will turn 31 on Sept. 30 – will return to his Hall of Fame-caliber form. That’s what the Packers need, and not just from a winning-games-in2022 perspective.

Bakhtiari is playing under a four-year, $92 million contract extension that briefly made him the highest-paid offensive tackle in the NFL. With a couple of cap-saving restructures, Bakhtiari is scheduled to have staggering cap charges of $29.07 million in 2023 and $33.07 million in 2024. That’s the type of money handed to championship-worthy quarterbacks and not broken-down offensive tackles.

“Our medical staff, what they’ve been telling me, I feel pretty good about it in the long term,” Gutekunst said. “We knew going into the season that it was going to be a little bit touch and go, not really sure when he was going to be able to get back. I thought he came into the second-to-last game and had some really quality snaps, and then had a little bit of a setback there. But feel really good about where he’s at right now.”