Jets Put Packers’ Offensive Line Through Spin Cycle
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers’ offensive line features a five-time All-Pro and a Pro Bowler. General manager Brian Gutekunst has supplemented the group with nine – nine! – draft picks the last three years.
During Sunday’s loss to the New York Jets, Green Bay’s offensive line was absolutely destroyed.
Did Gutekunst draft poorly?
Are coach Matt LaFleur’s schemes bad?
Is offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich in over his head?
Is Luke Butkus incapable of replacing Stenavich as line coach?
Whatever the reasons, the line – the underrated power behind so many of Green Bay’s prolific offenses – was overmatched physically and mentally in a 27-10 debacle that had fans exiting Lambeau Field with 9 minutes to go and the team in a desperate search for answers.
“Bottom line is if we don’t get it blocked up front better, it’s hard,” LaFleur said. “We didn’t run the ball effectively. Felt like there was a lot of pressure on our quarterback. I know Aaron took a ton of hits today and that’s where the game starts. So, we’ve got to coach better. We’ve got to come up with something that alleviates some of the pressure.”
It’s as if the Packers had never seen a line stunt. The Jets didn’t have to blitz to stop Green Bay’s offense in its tracks. Time and again, their defensive front looped left and right. Time and again, they nailed quarterback Aaron Rodgers or stopped running backs Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon before they had a chance to make a move.
The Packers knew it was coming but seemed completely unprepared.
“Whether it was our schemes or the execution, or it could have been all of the above, it wasn’t good enough,” LaFleur said.
Right tackle Elgton Jenkins, a Pro Bowl guard in 2020 and quality left tackle in 2021, played well last week against the Giants but not this week. The transition to right tackle, quite obviously complicated by his return from last year’s torn ACL, has been a major challenge. Two holding penalties and one false start were the lowlights of his day.
Right guard Royce Newman, a fourth-round pick last year who started 16 games as a rookie, hasn’t taken anything resembling that second-year step that coaches count on. He was benched before halftime but thrown right back into the fray when his replacement, Jake Hanson, suffered a biceps injury. He allowed at least a half-dozen pressures.
Aaron Rodgers is sacked by John Franklin-Myers, who beat Royce Newman. (Photo by USA Today Sports Images)
Center Josh Myers, a second-round pick last year, has never been as good as the player the Packers could have drafted, Chiefs center Creed Humphrey.
Left guard Jon Runyan, typically one of the better players on the unit, has had better days.
At least left tackle David Bakhtiari was mostly excellent.
A breakdown here and a breakdown there has been the theme through six games. Those breakdowns have frequently come on third down, where the Packers have allowed 10 of their 15 sacks. That third-down total is second-most in the NFL.
“We’ve got to go back to the basics. That’s all we can do,” Bakhtiari said. “It goes back to being consistent across the board. A guy here, a guy there, if five guys have one mess-up, that’s five bad pass-pro attempts. The film, we’ve got to go back, we’ve got to correct, we’ve got to be honest with ourselves, something that we talk about with the line. When you put that out there, that’s blood … When you talk about blood, that’s what the defense (or) sharks are going to look at. And until you fix that, they’re going to keep attacking that.”
The Packers had their moment early in the second quarter after new linebacker Eric Wilson blocked a punt to set them up at the Jets’ 36. On the first play, Jenkins was flagged for holding to eliminate a 14-yard run by Jones. On third-and-9, Bakhtiari never saw Sheldon Rankins loop around him, resulting in a sack to knock the Packers out of field-goal range.
With the score tied 3-3 early in the third quarter, Newman barely laid a finger on John Franklin-Myers for a third-down sack.
Trailing 10-3, Quinnen Williams split Myers and Newman for a third-down sack. On the next play, the Jets blocked the punt and scored the pivotal touchdown for a 17-3 lead.
With Green Bay trailing 24-10 and in desperate need of a score, Jenkins was flagged again for holding. That turned third-and-4 into second-and-17. The game, unofficially, was over.
The Packers have been immune to the litany of mental breakdowns for years, whether it was James Campen coaching the line or Stenavich. Getting that fixed has to be the priority because it’s going to be impossible to win any games when the opponent can beat the hell out of Rodgers without having to blitz.
That’s the mental part. Then, there’s the physical part. What can LaFleur do on the right side of the line? On paper, the simple solution would be moving Jenkins to right guard and inserting Yosh Nijman at right tackle. The reality is that’s not so simple – Nijman had to be locked in at left tackle due to Bakhtiari’s knee injury, so there’s no evidence he can play right tackle – but it has to be a consideration following Sunday’s disaster.
The easier move, from a moving-parts perspective, would be to put rookie Zach Tom at right guard and hope that Jenkins rounds into form as the ACL becomes more and more a distant memory.
“I think everything’s on the table moving forward in terms of trying to get our best people out there to give us the best opportunity to move the football,” LaFleur said.
Of Gutekunst’s nine picks used on the linemen, four have been in the first four rounds. Myers (second round) has been mediocre, rookie Sean Rhyan (third round) had a bad training camp, Newman (fourth round) has regressed and Tom (fourth round) showed promise during camp and the preseason.
Bakhtiari “absolutely” has faith the team can get its issues addressed. It starts up front.
“The inconsistency, that’s the No. 1 thing,” he said. “Coaches always preach from top down, it takes all 11. We’ve got to be more consistent, and we’ve got to be more honest moving forward about what we’re doing. Whether that’s run or pass, we’ve all got to be on the same page, and we’ve all got to execute our jobs. That’s our job at the end of the day.”
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