Packers-Bears Inactives: Jenkins Will Make Season Debut
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers offensive lineman Elgton Jenkins is active and will play in his first game since tearing his ACL at Minnesota on Nov. 21, 2021.
Also active for Sunday night against the rival Chicago Bears is starting left guard Jon Runyan, who dropped out of last week’s loss at the Vikings with a concussion. That means four-fifths of Green Bay’s No. 1 line will be suited up. The exception? Left tackle David Bakhtiari, as expected, is inactive. Yosh Nijman will start at left tackle and draw the big matchup against Bears star Robert Quinn.
Green Bay’s inactives include five rookies who are healthy scratches: safety Tariq Carpenter, offensie tackle Caleb Jones, guard Sean Rhyan, receiver Samori Toure and defensive lineman Jonathan Ford.
Receiver Allen Lazard, as expected, will make his season debut.
Safety Rudy Ford, who was added to the injury report (hamstring) and listed as questionable on Sunday, will play. His injury must not have been too significant with Carpenter inactive.
Jenkins’ return is impressive; he was injured just short of 10 months ago. He was a Pro Bowl guard in 2020 and played at an impressive level in place of Bakhtiari at left tackle last year. Now, he’ll be the team’s starting right tackle.
“Oh, yeah, for sure. That’s the goal,” Jenkins said during training camp of returning to elite status. “When I first hurt myself and I started going into rehab and all that, I just wanted to get back to a better form of myself or even better.”
With the return of Jenkins, one mystery remains. Last week, Royce Newman started at right tackle and Jake Hanson started at right guard. Who will start at right guard vs. Chicago? Will it be Newman, who started 16 times at that spot as a rookie last year? Or will it be Hanson, who spent most of training camp at that spot?
