As we turn the page into the second half of the 2025 season, the Green Bay Packers stand 5-2-1, atop the NFC North. They have a chance to further consolidate that position, and potentially regain their spot as the first seed in the NFC with a win against the Eagles on Monday night.
While the Packers have their work cut out for them in that game, I’m going to take the opportunity to take a bird’s eye view of one of the largest issues plaguing the Packers’ offense: the offensive line.
Entering the 2025 season, the offensive line was perceived to be a massive strength of the team. There was a lot to be excited about. They had ended 2024 as one of the best units in the entire league, after all. Zach Tom had something of a breakout season, as a dominant right tackle. Both Rasheed Walker and Sean Rhyan had looked like they had taken a step forward in their development, and they had a high end backup in Jordan Morgan, who would have the opportunity to challenge for a starting gig. During the offseason, the front office made three additional moves to further solidify the line.
First, they allowed the 2024 starting center Josh Myers to walk in free agency. Myers had been long perceived as the weakest link in the weak link system that is an offensive line. Myers had never quite lived up to his draft position (especially having been taken right before all-pro Creed Humphery), and while he always had great chemistry with Jordan Love, it seemed to be a relatively easy decision for the Packers to let Myers out the door.
Next, free agent Aaron Banks was lured to Green Bay, to the siren song of a four year, $77 million dollar contract. While Banks had never really been a great offensive lineman in his time in San Francisco, he had at least been average with flashes of good. Which, it seems, was enough to convince the Packers to hand Banks the contract, and move versatile veteran Elgton Jenkins to center.
Lastly, they drafted tackle Anthony Belton in the second round, to the surprise of many. They had just taken Jordan Morgan in the first, after all, who was a tackle. Zach Tom was still in line to get his massive extension, and Rasheed Walker had a good season. The Packers choose to double down anyway. Belton is an absolute mammoth of a human being, standing 6’ 6”, 336 lbs.
All in all, these moves seemed to signal a bit of a philosophy change for the Packers, and what they prefer in their offensive linemen. As we all know, the Packers are very selective when it comes to the athletic profiles and body types of players on their roster, but the offensive line had always been a zone blocking unit, one that highly emphasized agility and pulling ability. Over the last year, the Packers have been slowly adding weight and mass to that offensive line, to the point where it now more closely resembles a power gap blocking system. The average weight for the 2025 Packers is 317 lbs, while the 2024 version averaged 314 lbs. That might not seem like a big difference, but keep in mind that the second smallest lineman (Myers) was swapped out for the heaviest (Banks), while Anothny Belton is now the heaviest lineman on the team at 336 lbs.
Now that we are halfway through the 2025 season, it’s looking like those investments and changes to the offensive line have not paid off.
So far in 2025, the Packers OL is 19% in pressures allowed, 24th in yards per carry, 17th in yards before contact, 27th in explosive run rate. Their best areas are preventing sacks (4th in sack rate) and 8th in avoiding stuffed runs.
The offensive line has been inconsistent at best to begin 2025, and a huge part of that has been injuries along the front. To begin with, the Packers have been missing some depth pieces for the line all year. Second year players Travis Glover (shoulder) and Jacob Monk (Hamstring) suffered injuries in training camp. Glover will not be seeing the field at all in 2025, while Monk has only been activated from IR a few weeks ago. This led to the acquisition of Darian Kinnard a few days before the preseason ended via trade (another heavier lineman at 322 lbs). Meanwhile, Aaron Banks has been hurt on and off all year, missing two games. Zach Tom and Sean Rhyan have also missed time, along with Kinnard and Anthony Belton. I want to be clear that I’m not blaming those players for missing time. Injuries suck. But those injuries have drained the Packers OL of consistency, because guys can’t get used to playing next to each other when the guy next to them is always changing. Which leads me to my next point: rotations.
The Packers are one of the only teams (if not the only?) in the NFL who use rotations along the offensive line. The mainstream opinion on the subject is that playing the same combination of linemen (barring injuries, of course) allows those players to settle into their individual assignments, build chemistry with their teammates, and gel together into an effective unit. As part of their “draft and develop” philosophy, the Packers will rotate players at certain positions, in order to get their younger players reps on the field, facilitating that development. It’s certainly an opinion that goes against the grain among NFL circles, but it’s part of something baked into the DNA of the Packers: competition. Take Matt LaFleur’s recent comments on the rotations: “When you feel good about multiple people, you want to keep them playing. Keep them engaged, keep them a part of everything, and keep developing them”.
Between injuries and rotations, the Packers have used ten different combinations of lineman across the five man front. The most common combination has been Walker-Banks-Jenkins-Morgan-Tom, and it has only been played for 29% of snaps, the 6th lowest rate in the league. Any offensive line would struggle with this amount of instability, which is further reflected among those rankings. Towards the top, you’ll generally see teams with better offensive lines (IND, SEA, PIT), while teams towards the bottom have generally struggled (GB, CLE, NO).
Now, as important as it is to talk about the offensive line as a cohesive unit, it’s equally important to acknowledge the individuals that comprise it.
Rasheed Walker
Entering this season, Rasheed Walker had the opportunity of a lifetime in front of him. Imagine being Walker when you hear the news that Dan Moore Jr, a worse player than you, has signed a four year, $82 million contract. You’re entering a contract year, have won the starting job with ease, and had a good season the year previous. Cha-ching, right?
Fast-forward, and Walker has probably cost himself with his performance so far this year. He’s allowed three sacks this season and seventeen hurries, which are both the most on the entire team. His worst game came in the loss against Cleveland, in which Myles Garrett took his lunch money all game long, and Walker was the subject of one of the best player mic’ed up clips I’ve seen in a long time.
Aaron Banks
Banks’ season has been a constant fight to just stay on the field at all. So far in 2025, he’s battled through ankle, groin and knee issues. He’s missed only two full games, but only played 264 out of the team’s 511 snaps of offense this year.
When he has been on the field, Banks has been… not great. His latest game against the Panthers was his highest PFF graded performance of the season. That being said, he only played for nine snaps against the Panthers… So, you know.
Elgton Jenkins
Jenkins’ move to center was supposed to be a simple matter of addition by subtraction for the team. Exit Myers, enter Jenkins, equals better OL, right? Turns out it may have not been as simple as that. Jenkins has been a bit up and down at center this season. Opponents like Cleveland and Detroit have been able to exploit Jenkins, but he’s also had some really, really good showings against Dallas and Washington.
Despite the inconsistency he’s shown in moments, he’s still been one of Green Bay’s best linemen this season. Jenkins’ future in Green Bay is unclear, with the massive cap figure the team could save by moving on next offseason.
Sean Rhyan
Rhyan finds himself in a similar situation as Rasheed Walker. He’s now in a contract year, playing worse than he did last year. The difference is that Rhyan seems to be in danger of losing his job entirely. He was benched in week 7, in favor of Jordan Morgan, and has shared snap rotations with Morgan all season long.
Zach Tom
Tom received a massive contract extension from the Packers on July 22nd, tying him to Green Bay through the 2029 season in exchange for a cool $88 million. Since returning from an oblique injury that plagued him in the early season, Tom has once again established himself as the anchor of the Packers’ offensive line. He’s yet to surrender a sack on the year (knock on wood!), and only six hurries.
Jordan Morgan
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A Packers’ offensive lineman has had an inconsistent, up and down season, rotating in and out of the lineup. The Packers’ first round pick in 2023 has not found a way to impact the team in a real way, though perhaps that's no fault of his own. Morgan has found himself moved all along the offensive line over his first two seasons in Green Bay. The only position Morgan has not played or practiced (to my knowledge) is center.
The Packers have, in recent weeks, shown a willingness to “settle” him down at a single position: right guard. It was notable, during the Panthers’ game, that when Aaron Banks left the game it was Sean Rhyan who replaced him at that spot. Rhyan had not played on the left side yet in the NFL, though Morgan has. I appreciated that they were able to keep themselves from moving Morgan, since that would have meant moving two players around instead of just one.
Looked at individually, the Packers’ offensive linemen have been marred by inconsistency. Run blocking has been especially problematic. According to ESPN’s run block win rate, they are 21st in the league with a 71% mark.
Remember how the Packers have been adding heavier and heavier lineman to the roster this season? That sort of change is usually associated with a move towards a gap run blocking scheme, as opposed to a zone scheme that the Packers have run in the majority for years.
So far in 2025, the Packers have run 49% zone scheme rate, and a 34% gap blocking rate. These numbers place the Packers at 13th in zone usage, and 18th in gap blocking. Per PFF, the players have been slightly more effective at running gap schemes, with Zach Tom and Rasheed Walker grading positively, Sean Rhayan and Aaron Banks average, and the others falling below average. In zone blocking, Zach Tom has been above average, Rasheed Walker and Elgton Jenkins average, and Sean Rhyan, Jordan Morgan and Aaron Banks falling below average.
I will be interested to see how the split between zone blocking and gap blocking progresses through the year. When I last wrote about this topic, the Packers had a near even split between the two.
As the team stands now, the Packers have a date with the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night. The Packers are facing a team that is not exactly the same ferocious unit that won the Super Bowl last season. The Eagles are 26th in team sacks, 16th in rushing yards allowed, and 11th in passing yards allowed. On paper, the Packers are not over matched like they were last year. There’s an opportunity for the line to show that they can take care of business against the defending champions. If they can’t? My hand might start hovering over that big red panic button.