GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers last season had one of the best running games in the NFL and yielded one of the lowest sack percentages. That was good, but good wasn’t good enough.
With the first practice set for Wednesday, here is our Packers training camp preview of the offensive line.
Coming and Going
As part of a new offensive line, the Packers signed left guard Aaron Banks to a blockbuster contract. To make way for him in the lineup, Pro Bowl left guard Elgton Jenkins was moved to center. The team also used a second-round pick on Anthony Belton and a seventh-round pick on John Williams.
Josh Myers, who started 50 of a possible 51 games at the center the last three seasons, was not re-signed in free agency and instead joined the Jets.
Biggest Battle: Jordan Morgan vs. Everyone
OK, it’s not Jordan Morgan vs. everyone. However, last year’s first-round pick has a couple avenues to winning a starting job. One is at left tackle, where he is expected to challenge returning starter Rasheed Walker. With Walker sidelined for the minicamp, Morgan got extensive work at the position he starred at while at Arizona. The other is at right guard, where he was in an early-season timeshare with starter Sean Rhyan as a rookie before season-ending shoulder surgery.
Because of the shoulder, Morgan had an underwhelming rookie season. He missed a chunk of training camp as well as Weeks 2, 3 and 4 due to the injury. It’s hard to play at peak efficiency when you’re injured, and it’s hard to get better when you’re not practicing or playing with consistency.
With the injury in the rear-view mirror, the Packers no doubt will want Morgan to start. Because of the organizational importance of Walker, the best path might be at right guard, even though Rhyan played well in his debut season in the starting lineup.
“One thing about him is he has that elite athleticism,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said before the start of OTAs. “Guy moves well, he’s fast, he can redirect. I think now is just a good time to put him out there and see how he does and just watch him compete.”
Game-Changer: Zach Tom
No doubt Zach Tom would like to forget about last year’s wild-card loss to the Eagles. Otherwise, Tom went from a solid starting right tackle in 2023 to a superb one in 2024.
Last season, 67 offensive tackles played at least 500 snaps during the regular season. He ranked 21st in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency, which measures sacks, hits and hurries allowed per pass-protecting snap. PFF charged him with three sacks.
Right tackle is a premium position. Once upon a time, a defense’s best pass rusher lined up across from the offense’s left tackle to rush the blind side of the passer. That’s no longer the case. According to PFF, 25 edge rushers had at least 50 pressures. From that group, 15 rushed mostly against the right tackle, including 11 at 60-plus percent. T.J. Watt, Maxx Crosby, Micah Parsons, Aidan Hutchinson and Danielle Hunter are among the elite pass rushers who mostly line up against the right tackle.
Tom’s ability to defeat those elite pass rushers is incredibly important to the offense.
Meanwhile, of every offensive lineman who played at least 300 run-blocking snaps, Tom ranked second in blown-block rate; Sports Info Solutions considers a blown block as any time the player does not successfully block his defender and gives the defender an opportunity to negatively impact the play.
With his excellence, he is expected to receive a contract extension worth in excess of $20 million per season.
What is the next step?
“I would just say consistency,” he said. “Being a guy that can set the tone during games, being a guy that you can really rely on to block those edge rushers – those elite edge rushers – one-on-one, take them out of the game. But, yeah, that’s the next step for me, for sure. Just being a guy that you know is going to get it done out there.”
X-Factor: Elgton Jenkins
Elgton Jenkins was a Pro Bowler in 2020, when he played mostly left guard but also some center. He showed his excellence by replacing David Bakhtiari at left tackle in 2021 before suffering a torn ACL. He was a Pro Bowler again in 2022, when he opened the season at right tackle before shifting back to left guard.
As part of the team’s revamped offensive line, Jenkins will play center.
“We feel he’s got a chance to be an All-Pro center,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said.
Jenkins isn’t against the move, but he is against how the move could impact his next contract. So, he skipped the voluntary part of the offseason and didn’t practice during minicamp. Whether that will stunt his growth at his “new” position remains to be seen. How Jenkins handles shotgun snaps – a struggle in the rain against Detroit in his one start at that position last year – will be worth monitoring.
Meanwhile, will the second-round pick, Anthony Belton, compete for a starting job? As is the case with free-agent addition Aaron Banks, Belton is a massive individual as the Packers have put an emphasis on acquiring bigger linemen with some movement skills rather than taking athletic linemen with some power.
At 6-foot-6 and 335 pounds, Belton is the heaviest player on the roster. He started at left tackle at NC State but spent the offseason playing the right-side positions. The Packers don’t need Belton to start in Week 1 but, chances are, they’ll need him to play important snaps at some point this season.
Under the Radar: Jacob Monk
The Packers drafted Jacob Monk in the fifth round last year after he started for five seasons at Duke. He played in 10 games as a rookie but didn’t play a single snap on offense. Even when calamity struck the offensive line in the playoff loss to the Eagles, Monk was stuck on the sideline.
Last year, Elgton Jenkins was the backup to center Josh Myers. With Jenkins now the starting center, there is no obvious backup center. Thus, a golden opportunity has been dropped on Monk’s lap. He needs to take an enormous Year 2 jump.
As Jenkins said during training camp last year, “He’s a smart guy. He went to Duke. The playbook is not what’s hard for him. I’d say just switching positions from left guard to right guard to center. But he’s definitely handling it well. He’s a competitive guy. He wants to go out there and compete. The sky is the limit for him. He’s just got to keep on working and he’ll be a good player.”
Noteworthy Number
13: That’s the number of sacks charged by Pro Football Focus to Green Bay’s five regular starters on the offensive line. Left tackle Dan Moore, who signed a four-year, $82 million contract with the Titans in free agency, gave up 12 last year with the Steelers.
Roster Projection
LT Rasheed Walker, LG Aaron Banks, C Elgton Jenkins, RG Sean Rhyan, RT Zach Tom, G/T Jordan Morgan, G/T Anthony Belton, T/G Kadeem Telfort, C/G Jacob Monk, G John Williams.
Key to Success: Aaron Banks Living Up to Contract
Is Aaron Banks the key on the offensive line? Probably not. But the player who was given a four-year contract worth an astronomical $77 million – the type of contract given to a great player – deserves mention in this story because of his organizational importance.
Banks was a second-round pick by the 49ers in 2021. After barely playing as a rookie, he started 16 games in 2022, 14 games in 2023 and 13 games in 2024. He’s been a good player but hardly one that seems worthy of ranking seventh among guards in average salary.
“I think anybody would say that it is a testament to the hard work that you put in and how hard you play,” Banks said when asked if the contract was validating.
Last year, 66 guards played at least 500 snaps. Banks allowed only one sack but ranked 36th in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency. At Sports Info Solutions, his blown-block rate on runs was a solid 2.8 percent. However, for sake of comparison, Sean Rhyan’s was 1.8 percent, Elgton Jenkins’ was 2.1 percent and Josh Myers’ was 2.2 percent.
General manager Brian Gutekunst’s batting average is impeccable in high-stakes free agency. So, he must see the upside in Banks’ game that hasn’t come to the forefront.
He had better be right. With the team’s upcoming salary-cap challenges, it can’t afford to have grossly overpaid for a player at a non-premium position.
The battles at receiver will be one of the highlights of #Packers training camp. Here's a deep look at the group, with the X-factor, game-changer, under-the-radar player and more at a position overflowing with talent.https://t.co/ZBsGaLTwEx
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) July 16, 2025