TOUGH QUESTION: Why OL is the Packers biggest draft need - not DB - TrickWiz

Eli Berkovits takes a closer look at the Packers’ offensive line group and why it needs a serious infusion of young talent

The NFL draft is less than 30 days away and there is still so much discourse on how the Packers should be approaching it. The roster is loaded with young talent in certain areas but others are in need of serious reinforcements.

Right off the bat, my mind goes straight to the secondary – as it has for several years. The safety room is depleted and there are no proven entities at Cornerback outside of Jaire Alexander. Yes, the Xavier McKinney signing was huge, and his presence alone should do a ton for the defense, but that’s still only one guy. The most experienced safety behind McKinney is Anthony Johnson Jr. who is only entering his second year after playing just 334 snaps as a rookie.

Things aren’t much prettier over at Cornerback. Behind Alexander, the only experienced boundary corners left are second-year man Carrington Valentine, Eric Stokes who has played in only 12 games over the past two seasons, and Corey Ballentine. I loved what Valentine showed as a rookie and I still have hope that Stokes can return to form after an injury-plagued couple of years but neither of these guys are close to sure things right now.

Even after saying all of that, I still believe that it’s the offensive line that needs the most attention right now, not the secondary.

On the surface, I can agree that the offensive line doesn’t feel like nearly as much of a problem as the secondary does but when you dig a little deeper, you’ll see a troubling picture. As of this writing, the Week 1 projected starting offensive line is (L-R) Rasheed Walker, Elgton Jenkins, Josh Myers, Sean Rhyan, and Zach Tom.

Before we even get to the depth or lack thereof, let’s take a closer look at the starting group.

Rasheed Walker had a very promising sophomore campaign and I certainly have high hopes for him moving forward but he’s far from a finished product. He struggled at times in the run game and committed 10 penalties which was 10th most among Tackles. To be fair, he did finish the year nicely, but there were some pretty rough performances mixed in early on. He would benefit a ton from some competition in training camp.

We know Elgton Jenkins is a stud, so let’s move on to Center.

I fear the Josh Myers experiment may have run its course. Everything started so well, but after a season-ending injury just six games into his rookie season, he hasn’t been the same. His biggest struggles have come in run-blocking where he finished with a 53.2 PFF run-blocking grade – 5th worst in 2023. The year before he finished with a 53.5 which was slightly better at 8th worst in the league. There are some very good Centers in this year’s class, and I’d expect the Packers to draft one relatively early.

Right Guard has to be the biggest question mark of them all right now with Sean Rhyan slated to start after playing only 229 career snaps. While it’s a very small sample size, I do think Rhyan has looked decent when he’s out there, but we really don’t know what they have in him just yet. Could he wind up winning the starting job? Sure. But he must face competition in camp, and it has to come from a rookie – not Royce Newman.

Finally, we get to one of my favorite players on this roster – Zach Tom at Right Tackle. Coming out of the 2022 draft I compared Tom to Elgton Jenkins and thus far I am very happy with that comparison. He has taken snaps at all five spots along the offensive line, which is incredible, but it feels like he belongs on the right side long-term. He lined up at Right Tackle on 700 pass-blocking snaps in 2023 and allowed only 2 sacks. I wouldn’t mess with that.

Overall, I see it as two players I feel very confident in (Jenkins, Tom), one player I feel pretty good about (Walker), and then two huge question marks at Center and Right Guard.

It’s not the best or worst starting five but that isn’t where my biggest concerns lie – it’s with the depth. The only other offensive linemen currently on the roster are Royce Newman, Caleb Jones, Luke Tenuta, and Kadeem Telfort. That is a frightening thing to think about. Newman is the only one with real NFL experience and that experience hasn’t been great. You can survive with him as your third or fourth option off the bench, not your first.

The rest of that group has played a combined 7 NFL snaps all taken by Tenuta in a 2022 game against the Vikings. We’ve heard good things about Jones and Tenuta over the years but we haven’t seen anything yet that should lead us to believe they can be relied upon if an injury occurs.

It may sound cliché, but winning football starts in the trenches and as of now I don’t see a complete starting unit, and whatever depth is left isn’t all that encouraging.

This is going to take more than just drafting a lineman at 25th overall. We’ve seen Brian Gutekunst triple dip at the same position multiple times during his tenure as GM and I’d expect him to do it again. The Packers have 11 picks in this year’s draft, I don’t see any way they leave without at least three offensive linemen and that feels a bit conservative.

A short list of guys I’m high on that fit what the Packers look for in an offensive lineman and can realistically be there at 25 or later: