On the first day of the NFL’s “legal tampering period,” the Green Bay Packers agreed to terms with free agent offensive guard Aaron Banks on a four-year, $77 million deal. The 27-year-old Banks spent the first four years of his NFL career with the San Francisco 49ers and was a second-round pick, 48th overall, in the 2021 NFL draft out of Notre Dame.
Banks played five offensive snaps his rookie year after starting the season as a healthy scratch. When the 49ers eventually activated him, he played the majority of his snaps on special teams.
In 2022, he took over as the full-time starter at left guard, a position he held until the end of 2024 when he suffered an MCL injury in a Week 16 loss to the Miami Dolphins. He also suffered a concussion versus the Packers in Week 12.
Banks should seamlessly transition into the Packers' offense as it’s nearly an identical copy to the 49ers. Its terminology and overall philosophy are exactly the same with play-action and the running game. That still doesn’t mean Banks will be a huge or a significant upgrade as his time in San Francisco was turning in consistently average performances while playing next Trent Williams.
Either way, Banks is expected to slot into left guard with Elgton Jenkins sliding to center after the Packers let Josh Myers walk.
As you can see from Banks’ Pro Football Focus player grades, he is a rather average guard with overall grades in the 50s and 60s over the three seasons he was the full-time starter in the 49ers offense.
Per Sports Info Solutions, Banks was 2nd among the 49ers offensive line in blown block rate in the passing game and 2nd among all blockers in the run game. Out of 200 qualifying linemen, Banks ranked 149th overall in total blown block rate in combined pass and run game snaps.
Pass blocking
His worst graded pass-blocking game last season was in week four versus the Patriots where he graded out with a 13.2 pass-blocking grade. In that game, he gave up four pressures (one hit, three hurries). In the below videos, Banks is the left guard, #65.
Here, the Patriots send five rushers at quarterback Brock Purdy. The 49ers have five to block in “gone” pass protection (“gone” pass protection is true empty pass protection, “scat” pass protection is where the running back releases immediately from the backfield), but are in a 4-man slide to the two widest, which means that Banks has to slide inside but also has a backside double read for a linebacker threat.
Once that defensive tackle squeezes inside, Banks needs to get his eyes back outside for the threat. Instead, he recovers late to hit the defender but it doesn’t affect the rush and Purdy has to get rid of it on a throw that should be relatively easy to complete with time to throw.
On another pressure later in the game, he was a little too impatient and didn’t wait for the rusher to declare his move. Once the defensive tackle took an outside path in the B-gap, Banks went to strike and the defender clubbed his hands away and sped through the gap straight at Purdy, who ended up throwing the ball away.
His weight is too far forward to recover here to adequately recover and he isn’t able to drive the defender past the pocket and give his quarterback a chance.
Here, Banks loses leverage when he catches the defender on the outside of his shoulder pads instead of shooting his arms inside to the chest plate. The defender club’s and swims over him, taking him off balance.
On the lone sack, he gave up in week two of 2024, Banks was slow to pass off and recognize the stunt from the Vikings' defense. Here the 49ers get a 5-man pressure. They have six to block five with running back Jordan Mason as the check release into the flat.
The edge defender dodges the chip and loops inside to the quarterback while the linebacker rushes the B-gap and picks off Trent and ricochets inside to sack Purdy. Banks is just too slow here and Trent Williams is not on the same level to be able to pass off the stunt effectively.
In Super Bowl 58, Banks made a crucial error in the 3rd quarter during an offensive series the 49ers desperately needed points. At the start of the third quarter, the offense was unable to score after recording three straight three-and-outs to start the half, with their first drive starting at mid field after intercepting Patrick Mahomes.
The first play after a Patrick Mahomes interception was a shot play on a play-action concept called “burner.” The culprit on this play is Aaron Banks, who blocked down inside and let the blitzing linebacker through.
Defensive tackle Chris Jones slants inside, giving the down-blocking guard an easier block to execute. If Banks had fanned out to his left, he would have picked up the blitzing linebacker as they had all the rushers accounted for along the front. We can tell Banks went the wrong way because every other lineman is stepping down to their left.
Run blocking
In run blocking, Banks was better relative to his pass-blocking performances, but not by much. He still had a 4.3% blown block rate in gap scheme runs and a 4.1% blown block rate in zone scheme runs in 2024 per Sports Info Solutions, leading the team in both run-blocking categories.
Still, when he is able to execute his blocks, he can be as good as anyone.
He has good leverage and power at the point of attack, where he’s able to move defenders out of their gaps and open creases for the running backs. While he might have a high blown block rate, there’s a reason the 49ers chose to run behind him and Williams primarily, and that video above shows it.
But just as easily as he can win a solid run-blocking rep, he is also prone more often than not to losing one, with the evidence being his high blown block rate cited above.
Typically, this is the result of not being low enough and letting defenders get inside his chest pad level, poor footwork and bad hand placement that allow defenders to essentially just toss him aside at the point of attack before making the tackle or run stop.
Outlook
Overall, the contract the Packers gave Aaron Banks is a puzzlingly high deal for at best someone who might not crack anything more than average guard play in an offense that’s roughly 30% gap scheme runs. Having the duo of Jenkins and Morgan play alongside Banks should only help boost his performance a bit though.