State of Packers’ Offensive Line Is No Joke

With three powerful pass rushes coming up, what are the Packers going to do on the right side of the line with Royce Newman and Elgton Jenkins?

GREEN BAY, Wis. – During the no-stress days of minicamp and training camp, Aaron Rodgers could crack some jokes about the Green Bay Packers’ offensive line.

He called second-year center Josh Myers a “heavy sweater” that required “multiple towels.” He observed of second-year right guard Royce Newman, “Royce … might not look the same coming out of the shower to his girlfriend as he did last year; I feel like his belly got a little bigger.”

With left guard Jon Runyan, Myers and Newman entering their second seasons as starters, Rodgers was optimistic.

“You put 69 and Elgton back, that's a real good offensive line,” Rodgers said of David Bakhtiari and Elgton Jenkins.

Instead, the offensive line has been one of the weak spots on the team. While Bakhtiari is rounding into his vintage form following a career-changing knee injury, the rest of the line’s vintage is equivalent to that of Boone’s Farm. On Sunday against the New York Jets, Green Bay’s front wall of Bakhtiari, Runyan, Myers, Newman and Jenkins was overrun. Rodgers took four sacks and nine quarterback hits, the running backs too often didn’t have a prayer and the Packers were embarrassed 27-10.

As they try to clean up the mess before it’s too late, a huge decision awaits coach Matt LaFleur, offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich and offensive line coach Luke Butkus before they face the Washington Commanders’ high-octane defensive front on Sunday. Who will start at right guard? And, perhaps related, who will start at right tackle?

Right guard is a disaster. Newman, who started 16 games as a rookie fourth-round pick last year, has regressed rather than taking the expected second-year jump. Maybe it was spending half of training camp at right tackle. Maybe the opposition has found a weakness that he hasn’t fixed. Whatever the reason, he was benched vs. the Jets.

On the second-to-last series of the first half, defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins bull-rushed Newman right onto his butt and almost sacked Rodgers. After that series stalled, Jake Hanson replaced him for the 2-minute drill. Hanson suffered a biceps injury during that six-play scoring drive, so Newman was back in for the second half.

With Washington’s disruptive defensive tackle duo of Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne looming on Sunday, the Packers have three choices: Keep Newman in the lineup and hope he plays better, insert rookie Zach Tom and hope he plays like a veteran or move Jenkins in from right tackle and hope he adapts quickly to a new position.

Jenkins, a Pro Bowl left guard in 2020 and an above-average left tackle in 2021 before suffering a torn ACL, has struggled through four of his five starts. Whether it’s coming off a major knee injury, the position change or both, he has not played at his usual elite level. While his run blocking has been typically strong, he’s had a lot more difficulty facing skilled edge rushers this year than he had last year.

LaFleur’s offensive line philosophy is centered on getting the best five blockers on the field. On paper, putting Jenkins at right guard and Yosh Nijman at right tackle would be their best five. But games aren’t played on paper.

Nijman last played right tackle as a senior at Virginia Tech in 2018. While he’s taken practice reps at that spot this season, that’s a relatively new development. With Bakhtiari missing all of the 2021 season plus the 2022 offseason, training camp and start to the regular season because of his knee injury, Nijman had been locked in at left tackle.

While Bakhtiari played all but seven snaps in the home games against the Patriots and Jets, he also played less than half the snaps vs. the Giants.

Is it ideal to keep running Newman out there at right guard? Of course not. It’s also not ideal to have your new starting right tackle playing a position he hasn’t played in an NFL game while being one snap away from having to go in at left tackle.

So, that’s the dilemma LaFleur and his staff are facing with the team sitting at 3-3 with games against Washington (fourth in sack percentage), Buffalo (sixth) and Dallas (second) on the horizon.

On Monday, LaFleur wouldn’t provide any inkling to what he was thinking.

“I think everything’s on the table moving forward,” he said, “in terms of trying to get our best people out there to give us the best opportunity to move the football.”

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