Paul Bretl | 7/30/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — After Packers’ first-round rookie offensive lineman Jordan Morgan played four of the five positions along the offensive line during OTAs and minicamp, he has only been working at the right guard position during training camp.
The Packers decision to do this is twofold. On one hand, they want Morgan to be able to focus on just one position. Particularly for a rookie, who is already navigating the learning curve that comes with making the jump to the NFL, having one position to prioritize can take a lot off their plate, and allows them to hone in on the skill-sets required to be successful at that one spot.
“I think with that,” said offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich on Monday, “with young guys, you kind of want to start them at a spot, and you don’t want to move them around as much, just so they can hone in on the techniques and the assignments and all that stuff.”
The other reason that the Packers have Morgan at right guard right now is that they believe this position gives him the best opportunity to compete for a starting spot to begin the regular season. He will be competing with Sean Rhyan for this role, who has primarily been at left guard with the starters with Morgan on the right side.
“When you look at the big picture, where you think he would compete best this year for a starting role, we looked and thought the right guard position was the spot,” Stenavich said. “So, I think, as of now we’ll kind of focus there, and as he grasps it and gets better there, we can move him around if we want to, or he does a great job there and he stays there and we’re good to go. Right now we’re just focusing on keeping him at one spot, so he can really hone in on it and be the best that he can be.”
Morgan played 2,392 career snaps at Arizona State, with all of them coming at left tackle. Following the first round of the draft, general manager Brian Gutekunst did mention that because of Morgan’s strength and footwork, they believed he had the ability to play inside.
The challenge for Morgan in this transition to right guard is, again, twofold. Not only is he playing a new position–guard instead of tackle–but he’s being asked to play on the right side of the offensive line versus the left, which from a play-call perspective, and technique standpoint, everything is opposite.
“It’s footwork,” said Morgan about playing right guard. “But it’s also just like hand placement. Everything happens quicker on the inside, so it’s just about getting out there quicker and understanding that things are going to come at you fast and you’ve just got to react quicker.”
With Morgan at right guard, their is a trickle-down effect to other positions along the offensive line. For starters, Rasheed Walker seems pretty locked into being the team’s starting left tackle this season. When Morgan was selected back in April, the original thought was that he could compete with Walker, but that hasn’t turned out to be the case at this time.
While Walker’s overall numbers from 2023 show up and down play, like many of the Packers’ young players on offense last season, he began to find his footing during the second half of the year. Consistency is what Stenavich and Matt LaFleur were looking for from him, and we began to see more of that over the Packers’ final six games, two of which were playoff games, with Walker giving up just one sack and nine pressures in that span. He ranked 10th in pass-blocking efficiency and 29th in run-blocking grade.
“I think Rasheed, he’s got an edge about him,” said Stenavich. “He’s a very intense competitor, and that’s the one thing that has really helped him. He plays with an edge, and he plays with kind of a chip on his shoulder. And with him, there’s kind of a big learning curve with buying into technique, buying into things that may not have been as important in the college game, but when you’re playing against really good competition every day, you have to be on point with things like that.
“So once he figured that out, and he’s still got improvements to make, but he’s making strides, and you couple that with the competitiveness, the effort that he plays with, there’s a lot of good stuff there, and he’s shown us that he’s a guy we can trust there at the spot.”
Morgan at right guard also means that the swing tackle role is up for grabs as well right now. Stenavich mentioned that there would be several players competing for that role, which includes Kadeem Telfort, Andre Dillard, Luke Tenuta, and Caleb Jones. However, while there is still plenty of time for a competition and additional rotation to take place, the leader in the clubhouse appears to be Telfort, who has spent the majority of his time these last four practices at right tackle with the starters.
“He’s been a good surprise and he’s been just a steady guy,” Stenavich said about Telfort. “He’s not the most athletic. He’s not all that stuff. When you look at the numbers, he’s a big guy. He plays consistently, which in the offensive line is very important. He’s just a consistent presence. He’s very football intelligent. He’s just one of those guys that I’m excited to just see how he plays and how he keeps developing. We’ll see at the end of camp how it all aligns.”
Of course, the caveat to everything discussed is that the configuration of the offensive line is always fluid and things can change depending on how each player is performing. But for now, while competitions are still unfolding, the offensive line is at least beginning to take some shape.