Paul Bretl | 5/27/2025
GREEN BAY, Wis. — After the Packers attempted to move 2024 first-round draft pick Jordan Morgan to guard last season, where he was competing with Sean Rhyan for playing time, this offseason, he will be competing with Rasheed Walker for the starting left tackle reps.
“Every day you’ve got to earn your spot,” said offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich, “and that’s what I like about the competition that we have in our offense right now is everyone’s going to have to show up and play well in order to keep their spot, because there’s a bunch of good, young players that are hungry.”
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Left tackle is Morgan’s natural position. Of the 2,404 snaps he played in college at Arizona, 2,392 of them came at left tackle, according to PFF. But, unfortunately, we saw very little of Morgan last season.
A shoulder injury over the summer would force him to miss all three preseason games and valuable practice time. In season, he appeared in only six games, playing 186 snaps before being sidelined again with a shoulder injury and then eventually landing on injured reserve.
So, with there being such a small sample size from last season, what gives the Packers the confidence that he can transition back to the tackle spot and compete with Rasheed Walker?
“How athletic he is,” said offensive line coach Luke Butkus about Morgan. “How easy he moves and how smooth it looks. I was just talking to Coach Gordon and sometimes it looks like he’s not straining or playing hard. I think it’s just natural, it’s easy for him to just move, to gain ground, to just skim the blades of the grass. It’s effortless. But really like where he’s headed and the direction he’s going. Love it.”
The Packers put a lot on Morgan’s plate last season. In addition to making the jump up in competition to the NFL level, Morgan was also navigating a position change and switching sides of the offensive line as well, moving from a college left tackle to a right guard with Green Bay.
When it comes to guard vs. tackle, everything happens much more quickly when inside. In terms of moving from the left side to the right side, all the techniques and movements that had been ingrained at left tackle for Morgan essentially had to be flipped with him now on the opposite side of the line.
“The further you go inside, the faster things happen,” Stenavich said. “So you just have to change up how you play as far as tackles are used to taking pass sets and kind of feeling, you get a little time to see what’s going on and then you can react. When you move inside, now everything is obviously happening quicker. You gotta be stouter with your sets, quicker with your hands.”
Morgan’s quick feet to mirror defenders and his play strength are two reasons why the Packers were confident that he could make the transition to guard. But, as Bukus highlighted, Morgan is a very good athlete and a natural mover, two elements of his game that could really shine more brightly at the tackle position than at guard. There is also something to be said for the comfort level that Morgan has at left tackle.
However, while those abilities can help Morgan function well out in space, in this more gap-heavy Packers’ offense, which featured a lot more power running between the tackles last season, and less outside zone where the blockers are in space, there is a level of physicality that Morgan is going to have to showcase in the running game if he’s going to win this starting job.
“With Josh, he’s more of a downhill guy,” Stenavich said. “I think that’s why we shifted a little bit as the season progressed; just more of a downhill run scheme. I think all these guys have the ability to do whatever we can ask across the board.”
While the Packers have a first-round talent in Morgan that they want to give the opportunity to start, it’s not as if Walker has played poorly at left tackle either–a position he’s started at for the last two seasons.
Last season, Walker surrendered just three sacks and four quarterback hits, while ranked right around league average in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency metric at 45th out of 87 eligible tackles. While not the be-all-end-all, Walker did rank 69th in PFF’s run-blocking grade, which, for the offensive line as a whole, is an area of opportunity as this unit looks to generate more big plays for Josh Jacobs this season.
The mantra when it comes to the offensive line room is that the Packers are going to put the “best five” on the football field. Doing so means leaning heavily on competition as well as the versatility that they have up front to mix and match as they test out different offensive line combinations.
For any offense, consistency starts with the offensive line providing a run game to lean on and time in the pocket for the quarterback.
“In this room, it’s always about competition,” added Butkus. “You know that. That stems from our head coach, from our offensive coordinator, and Rasheed will tell you that he’s working to win that job. Just like everyone else.”