Paul Bretl | 4/30/2025
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Many outside of the Packers’ organization entered the offseason thinking that the pass rush, cornerback, and wide receiver were the top positions of need for Green Bay to address. Internally, however, while not to say that GM Brian Gutekunst and Co. didn’t agree, the actions of the Packers over the last few months tell us that the offensive line is a clear area of improvement for this team.
“We’re always looking for opportunities to upgrade and/or bring in more competition,” said Matt LaFleur after the NFL draft. “I think that’s exactly what we did.”
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Between free agency and the NFL, the Packers signed Aaron Banks to a four-year, $77 million deal, and with–by their standards–relatively limited draft capital with only eight selections, spent two picks on the offensive line, including a premium second-round selection on Anthony Belton.
The play from the Packers’ offensive line unit in 2024 certainly wasn’t bad. In fact, this was one of the better collective units in pass protection, and after the season, Gutekunst acknowledged the group performed well in that regard.
However, as we’ve discussed before, if there is an area of opportunity for this starting unit, generating more explosive runs is at–or near–the top of that to-do list. As effective as Josh Jacobs and the run game were, Jacobs averaged a modest 4.4 yards per rush and ranked 32nd in PFF’s breakaway rate metric, which measures how often a back generates a run of 15-plus yards.
Those two stats aren’t about Jacobs; rather, it’s about the offensive line giving him more opportunities to get to the second level cleanly, where we know Jacobs can make defenders miss.
“Well you wanna get bigger as long as they’re talented, so I think it all goes hand in hand,” LaFleur added. “And I think it was pretty evident last year when you look at a team like Philly. I mean they dominated most teams up front on their offensive line as well as their defensive line, so I think in order to combat some of these teams that have elite pass rushes, you better be able to protect the quarterback and run the ball.
“So I thought to add big guys that can actually move, I think that’s a big-time positive for us.”
With that said, the emphasis on the offensive line this offseason goes beyond that one factor. We saw a shift last season with the Green Bay offense, which went from running a heavy dose of outside zone, where the offensive linemen are on the move and operating in space while the running back drifts towards the boundary before cutting upfield, to a more gap and power running scheme between the tackles.
The addition of Banks, moving Jenkins to center, and then adding Belton early in the draft tells us that this running style isn’t going anywhere, and the Packers are going to lean into that power scheme.
As Gutekunst said during his end-of-season press conference, while you never want to overreact to one game, the Packers’ offensive line depth was exposed during their playoff loss to Philadelphia. The already difficult task of moving the ball against the Eagles’ defense became even more daunting with Jordan Love facing constant pressure and the inability to rely on the run game.
And while the Packers benefited more than any other team in 2024 from continuity and health up front, the data tells us that many teams aren’t only going to need six capable linemen to get through an NFL season, but seven or even eight.
The Packers have now positioned themselves where one of Jordan Morgan or Rasheed Walker will be coming off the bench, along with incoming draft picks Belton and John Williams, while Travis Glover and Kadeem Telfort are returning as well.
From top to bottom of this Packers’ depth at the offensive line position, there are two qualities that are clearly evident with just about every player: size and versatility.
“I think for me there’s a skillset that they have to have to be able to play both tackle and guard,” Gutekunst said. “That’s been a big emphasis for us, we like to have guys that can play both. You’re either going to be a tackle-guard swing guy, a guard-center swing guy or a tackle-center swing guy. You’ve got to be able to play multiple spots. We’ve had a ton of luck throughout my years here of taking guys who played left tackle and moving them inside.”
Gutekunst would go on to add: “The big thing for me with the big guys, with what Matt likes to do on offense, is whether they’re inside or out, do they have enough quickness to get their head across the shade. And all these guys that we’ve taken, we feel pretty good about that.”
Ultimately, we have to see how this unit performs once the season begins, but on paper, which is all we have to go off of this time of the year, the Packers have better positioned themselves along the offensive, and did so not only for the 2025 season, but in 2026, where as of now, Walker, Sean Rhyan, and Zach Tom are all set to be free agents.
Of course, there is a long way to go before these decisions are made, but the Packers have potentially positioned themselves to be able to absorb losing Walker and/or Rhyan, with Morgan taking over at left tackle and Belton at right guard, while having Williams and Glover, among others, as depth off the bench.
As we detailed at the start of the offseason, the recipe was always there for Gutekunst to once again invest fairly heavily into the trenches, which he did.
Naturally, all eyes are on Jordan Love and the passing game, but consistent success for the Packers’ offense begins with stout play up front that provides a running game to lean on and gives Love time in the pocket to operate within the rhythm of the play.
“I think we really increased the competition across the board,” said Gutekunst. “I think I spoke before, I felt really good about our football team coming into this draft. We did some things in free agency and just where our team was in general that I felt really, really good about it. Certainly we increased the competition in a lot of spots.
“I think we were able to add, particularly these three days and even in free agency, pretty good culture fits, you know, guys that are going to fit into our locker room and be assets to us that way.”