Recipe exists for Packers to again go heavy on the offensive line this offseason

Paul Bretl | 1/28/2025

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Not only addressing the offensive line but often doing so heavily has become common practice each offseason under general manager Brian Gutekunst, and the recipe for that trend to continue could very well exist in 2025 as the Packers plan ahead and attempt to add competition to the position group.

In three of Gutekunst’s last four draft classes, the Packers have selected three offensive linemen. That’s an infusion of nine new offensive linemen to the roster in a four year span, not accounting for who was already on the roster or any outside free agent additions brought in.

It’s one thing to talk about the importance of a position group, it’s another thing to walk the walk as Gutekunst has with his roster building approach.

“Those big guys are hard to find, so that’s never something we’re not going to address,” said Gutekunst. “Like we’ve been pretty consistent in our time here. We very much believe that, with the exception of quarterback, winning in the trenches is how we need to get it done.

“And so, we’ve got some decisions to make as we move forward on the offensive line, and as we go through that, there could be some shuffling around.”

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Continuity was a key element behind the Packers overall play along the offensive line this season. According to ESPN, Green Bay’s starting offensive line unit played 830 snaps together during the regular season–the most in football.

When it comes to offensive line play, the sum of the parts are greater than any one individual, and when there is familiarity and an understanding in not only what you’re supposed to do as a blocker but a trust in where the blockers around you will be, that creates a cohesive and unified unit that operates as one.

We really saw the benefit of this in pass protection, particularly with how often Jordan Love was blitzed last season. During the regular season, no quarterback was blitzed more often than Love, according to PFF’s metrics. However, in terms of how often he was pressured, Love ranked 23rd in that category. Overall, the Packers’ offensive line finished seventh in ESPN’s pass block win rate metric.

“I thought our offensive line, particularly in pass pro, played really, really well all year for the most part, with the exception of a couple games,” Gutekunst said. “But I think all those guys had really solid years and improved.”

While it was a highly productive season for Josh Jacobs, who rushed for 1,329 yard–the sixth-most in football–one element that was missing from the Packers’ run game was the home run ability. Jacobs would steadily pick up positive gains, averaging 4.4 yards per rush on the season, and oftentimes, turning a carry that could have been a loss or no gain into one where he picked up a few yards.

But in terms of ripping off a huge gain, while Jacobs would rank 11th in rushes of 15-plus yards, that in part, is a product of how often he carried the ball. From an efficiency standpoint in that regard, Jacobs was 32nd among eligible running backs in breakaway rate.

In order to have more opportunities for those explosive runs, Jacobs needs more opportunities to hit the second level cleanly where we all know he has the ability to make defenders miss. However, of Jacobs’ 1,329 rushing yards, 1,039 of them came after contact. That’s nearly 80% of Jacobs total yards were manufactured after a defender contacted him.

For some context, the only backs with more yards after contact were Saquon Barkley (1,093) and Derrick Henry (1,137), but a stark difference is that both of those backs were around the 2,000 yard mark–or roughly 50% of their yards came after contact. Naturally, it’s a lot easier to rip of big runs when not dealing with defenders right away.

With Jacobs as the back, we saw a much more heavy dose of the gap running scheme this season rather than the traditional outside zone runs often associated with Matt LaFleur’s offense. The gap scheme suits Jacobs skill set well, but it was a change for the offensive line.

“I think coaching is, yeah, you have a philosophy of what you want to do and a foundation of what you want to do, but you’d better not be so stubborn that you just – this is what we’re going to do – if you’re pieces don’t necessarily match. I think that’s good coaching – putting your players in the best position possible,” LaFleur said.

During the Packers’ playoff matchup with Philadelphia, the depth of the offensive line was exposed when Elgton Jenkins left the game. From there, the Packers turned to rookie Travis Glover–his first significant NFL snaps–to fill in at right guard, and then second-year lineman Kadeem Telfort after Glover was penalized numerous times.

With the Eagles’ able to generate steady pressure on Love and a strong push in the run game while only rushing four, that made the already difficult task of breaking free from the Eagles’ two-high coverage shell all the more difficult. Losing that line of scrimmage battle was an key contributing factor to the Packers’ offensive woes.

Without Jenkins, as well as Jordan Morgan who was placed on season-ending injured reserve late in the year, I’m not sure that there are many–if any–offensive lines out there who could trot out their seventh lineman on the depth chart and expect them to hold up well against that Eagles’ front.

So, as Gutekunst said, you don’t want to overreact to that one performance, but competition has been a vital element to the rapid growth that we’ve seen from the Packers these last two years, so adding more of that to the offensive line room to push Glover, Telfort, and Jacob Monk–rather than assuming that a step forward in 2025 is going to happen–should be on Gutekunst’s radar, which it very often is, as highlighted at the beginning of our conversation.

In the outside world, the offseason is focus on immediate improvement–how can my team get better now? But internally, it’s part of Gutekunst’s job description to keep his eye to the future a few years down the road as well.

In the short term, center Josh Myers is set to be a free agent this offseason. Looking ahead just one year from now, Rasheed Walker, Sean Rhyan, and Zach Tom are all free agents in 2026. So whether it be planning to extend any of those players or bringing in new talent to be better prepared for any potential free agency exits, those are additional factors that will be baked into how Gutekunst navigates the offseason along the offensive line.

If you put all of that together: Gutekunst’s track record in the draft, the need for more competition on the back end of the roster, and some pending free agents over the next 12 months, and you get a recipe for, what I would guess, is another offensive line-centric offseason for the Packers.

“We’re going to continue to lean on versatility,” added Gutekunst. “We’ve got three or four guys on our line that could probably play five spots, and that’s, I believe in that. I think every coach that I’ve been around believes in that and I think that’s an asset that we have that not all teams have.”

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