Auburn's Connor Lew is one of the top centers in the draft. (Photo: Jason Caldwell, 247Sports)
By Mark Eckel
Did Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst tip the team's draft strategy just a little bit in his pre-combine news conference?
Gutekunst offered that there were a couple of centers in the 2026 draft that could be starters right away. Could one of them be a starter for the Packers?
Sean Rhyan, a tackle in college who was moved to guard his first three years in the league, ended the season as the Packers center. Rhyan is also an unrestricted free agent.
The 2022 third-round pick out of UCLA graded out well in 2025 according to our Andy Herman. Rhyan received a +0.20 grade in the playoff loss to Chicago and a +1.3 grade for the season which was second-highest among the offensive line. He also stayed healthy all season, a rarity for a Packers offensive linemen.
The question is what does Gutekunst and/or the Packers coaching staff think of Rhyan. Do they want him back on what should be a decent long-term deal? And if they do, do they want him at center or back at guard?
Which leads back to the GM talking about the centers in this draft.
According to most following the draft the top three centers in this draft are Auburn's Connor Lew, Florida's Jake Slaughter and Iowa's Logan Jones. Some like Kansas State's Sam Hecht as well.
Lew, 6-3, 303, was a junior captain who suffered a season-ending injury for the Tigers in the middle of the 2025 season. Before the injury he has allowed just one sack in 442 snaps. He's known to have great movement skills and a good football IQ.
Slaughter, 6-4, 303, was a redshirt senior for the Gators and started all 25 games the past two seasons. The two-time captain allowed just one sack in 800 snaps those past two seasons. And that was mostly going against SEC competition.
Jones, 6-3, 302, won the Rimington Award as the nation's best center A grad student at Iowa, he started 50 games in his college career. Another elite pass protector and team captain, Jones also allowed just one sack in two years. If there's a negative he will turn 25 early in his rookie season. That's four years older than Lew.
If the Packers do indeed move on from Rhyan for one of those three on another draft pick it wouldn't be the first time they turned to a rookie to anchor their line. And the last two times it worked out well.
In 2014, fifth-round pick Corey Linsley was forced into action when expected starter J.C. Tretter went out for the season with an injury.
Linsley helped the team to a 12-4 season, a NFC North title and a spot in the NFC Championship Game. Eddie Lacy ran for 1,139 yards that season. And on 548 pass attempts, Aaron Rodgers was sacked just 28 times.
When Linsley left as a free agent for the Chargers, the team went back to Ohio State and selected Josh Myers in the second round of the 2021 draft. Myers started opening day, suffered a knee injury that sidelined him for 11 games but he returned and helped the team go 5-1 over the last six games to earn the NFC's top seed.