The Green Bay Packers are taking spooky season seriously this season. At least, that’s what their October performances thus far suggest. Matt LaFleur lost back-to-back regular season games for the first time in his head coaching career, and they were particularly ghoulish showings.
Right now, the Packers aren’t particularly good at anything. There isn’t a lot to be optimistic about after Sunday’s frightful blowout loss to the New York Jets. The offense, which seemed close to clicking in previous games this season, took roughly 18,000 steps backward. While the team tries to figure out the source, there are tangible ways to treat some of the symptoms, starting with the offensive line. The Packers need to take immediate steps toward finding their actual best five, and perhaps Adam Stenavich needs to spend more time with his old group.
The offensive line, generally a strength for the modern-era Packers, was abysmal against the Jets. Quinnen Williams and his friends bullied the Green Bay front five, giving the already-struggling offense even more of a problem. Thirteen pressures became four sacks.
But this past Sunday wasn’t the only poor showing for the offensive line. The line’s poor play has been a serialized event every week this fall! Rodgers has been sacked 15 times, good for eighth in the league, and he’s the third-most hurried QB, according to Fantasy Pros. While Rodgers hasn’t played particularly well this season, being terrorized by defenders constantly isn’t helping.
That’s even though the offensive line should be trending upward thanks to getting a healthy Josh Myers, David Bakhtiari, and Elgton Jenkins back after playing without the three for most of last season.
The left side of the line is (mostly) fine. Thankfully, Bakhtiari appears to be working his way back to his All-Pro self. Bakhtiari is playing more each week and completely shed his injury status each week. After a long road to recovery, No. 69 is back and one of the few things going right. Jon Runyan Jr. has also been mostly reliable, though he struggled mightily against the Jets. After not giving up one in all previous games, he allowed four pressures on Sunday.
The right side is where things are particularly ugly. Jenkins hasn’t been the right tackle we’ve long expected, and he’s consistently struggling. He’s either much better on the left side, or he’s meant to stay at guard as his primary position. And that’s fine! He’s an amazing guard.
Royce Newman has been one of Green Bay’s worst starters, to the point where a defensive coordinator’s main pillar of attack can be “go through Newman.” He gave up a whopping five pressures against the Jets, and that game wasn’t an anomaly.
Matt LaFleur finally acknowledged Newman’s struggles, replacing him with Jake Hanson and giving the offense a shot in the arm. It didn’t matter because Hanson played five snaps before exiting the game with an injury.
Something absolutely must change, and it seems like LaFleur finally realizes it. LaFleur rarely benches players, and it’s even rarer for him to openly criticize someone on his team.
“We definitely have to look at what we’re doing in that regard because it hasn’t been up to the level that we’ve been accustomed to over my tenure here,” LaFleur said on Monday. “We haven’t performed that poorly in a game up to this point.”
Changes need to be made, but Hanson isn’t the answer either. Thankfully, the Packers have multiple options.
It’s hard to claim Yosh Nijman isn’t one of the best five linemen on the team. He filled in well covering for an All-Pro, and it hurts to see him riding the bench. Jenkins is not excelling as a tackle. While Nijman has only played left tackle in the NFL, he played the right side in college (and, frankly, should have gotten more snaps there this off-season). Move Jenkins back to guard and let Nijman try RT. If you really want to stack one side of the line, move Jenkins back to LG and move Runyan to the right side.
If you really believe Jenkins can be a tackle, at least give him better support. There’s a perfectly good Zach Tom on the roster deserving a spot in the starting lineup. Tom had an excellent preseason and earned a chance to see what he can do against starters. The Packers are notoriously slow to bring their best players into the starting lineup, just like when it took a Lane Taylor injury to get Jenkins into the lineup. Green Bay should make the change before they need to and give Tom a chance.
The Packers dealt with constant injuries last season, and Adam Stenavich and Luke Butkus handled it spectacularly. Maybe Stenavich needs to spend more time specifically focused on the offensive line. The offense on the whole needs work, and LaFleur needs the help of his OC, but maybe the best thing the OC can do is use his area of expertise to fix the offensive line.
But if the Packers can cast aside their stubbornness and find a better combination on the line, it will go a long way toward fixing the offense. The line isn’t the only problem, but the whole operation gets a lot easier to fix if Rodgers isn’t running for his life on every play. What they have now obviously isn’t working, and LaFleur finally showed a willingness to shake things up by benching Newman. Go all the way and deeply evaluate your best five, and don’t be afraid to be creative. Save the fans from more on-screen horror!
