As football fans prepare for Championship Sunday to watch the Patriots fight off the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium while the Rams deal with the Saints to see who punches their ticket to Atlanta. Packers fans continue to deal with the new changes in the offseason at 1265 Lombardi Ave, the latest was watching a 20-year man head to Cleveland and left with questions about the offensive line.
James Campen was with the organization for 20 years (11 years as offensive line coach). The likes of Chad Clifton, Mark Tauscher, Scott Wells were taught under Campen’s tutelage but after another inconsistent, injury plagued season with a makeshift offensive line. Changes were coming. When new head coach Matt LaFleur was hired, it was only a matter of time before Campen would move on. No doubt he will succeed in Cleveland especially with one of his own, JC Tretter playing center for the resurgent Browns.
Make no mistake, there are a lot of promising candidates out there starting with the shocking firing of Colts offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo who improved that unit from 53 sacks in 2017 to 18. Imagine what he can do to revamp the offensive line that also surrendered 53 sacks this season. Under McCarthy and Campen, they stressed zone blocking but also led to many blitzes and bull rush techniques to stop the lackadaisical offense. Before I fall into “hot take” territory, back to business.
According to Rob Demovsky of ESPN, they are actually targeting 49ers assistant offensive line coach Adam Stenavich. Crazy how he has roots to Wisconsin growing up in Marshfield and staying in the Big Ten with Michigan, but he never started a NFL game and was meant for coaching. Stenavich also has offensive line coach John Benton to learn underneath where he made the 49ers offensive line improve to 12th with tackle Joe Staley and rookie Mike McGlinchey. There has to be a balance of pass and run blocking to where the offense can recreate that trust with Aaron Rodgers.
Green Bay has at least 4 players that can do the job with…
All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari (2018 All-NFL team),
left guard Lane Taylor
center Corey Linsley
right tackle Bryan Buluga.
There is rumblings around Packer nation that Buluga could possibly be on his way out, but that is for another day. It was the depth chart and right guard position that was the issue. According to Pro Football Focus, somehow they were in the top 10…yeah, how?
There is an old “fail safe” method by bringing in a top-ranked free agent. Names like Panthers guard Ryan Kalil, Falcons guard Andy Levitre, Rams guard Rodger Saffold come to mind but they made 7.8 million to nearly 8.4 million this year. Also, could be an opening for Green Bay to draft a few offensive linemen and have an all-out battle for offensive line depth to go with the following…
Jason Spriggs
Lucas Patrick
Alex Light
Adam Pankey
Nico Siragusa
and 2018 fifth-rounder absentee Cole Madison (who is still a mystery).
Seriously, it should be like “Thunderdome” at training camp. But I will digress and see who will be the new offensive line coach.
Until next week, Packer fans.
6 responses to “Offensive Line Should be Top Priority for Packers Offseason”
Don’t forget de Beer-man!!
Agree 100% with making the OL the top priority. Will be interesting to see how the new coaches evaluate the existing players, and how they coach them to be better players.
Coaching may help one or two, but dont wait too long on hoping the Titanic won’t sink. Coach, evaluate, make a decision to keep or let walk. Wisconsin always seems to have good o lineman, big. But are they quick with feet and hands?
Lare….are you sure that getting one starter and a backup or two on the offensive line is more important than the secondary? I’m not.
The Five Man (including nickel) secondary that we will start….unless there are changes….includes a 36 year old CB playing out of position at safety (Williams), a UDFA who has battled injuries and inconsistency for two years (Brice), one starting corner who has missed about half the season twice in a row, a 2nd year corner who looked pretty good, and then either Breeland or Jackson at the nickel.
Behind them, we’ve got Jack Squat, so when the first injury hits we’re going to be playing somebody who we know can’t cover (like Jones) or some UDFA.
We were 26th in opposing QB rating. We were 31st in interceptions. We need better guys back there, even when the starters get hurt. We keep 9 DBs active on gameday…..I don’t have 9 guys that I’d want to go with at this point.
Right side needs help. Current players showed they can’t hold up. If they don’t have it now its doubtful they will. Beluga good, but can’t go all 16 anymore. FA, middle round draft, or undrafted! If they don’t show the ability in training camp move fast to release and replace. We need at least two big, quick o lineman now who can START! Enough of that practice squad crap with development; pipe dream. NOW!
We need a starter at RG. This should not be a problem because RG is the least important spot on the offense.
We have no backup at any position who has shown that we’d be OK with them in the starting lineup over a period of time. We’re probably going to need to use a premium pick to get a starting-ready OT in case Bulaga or Bakhtiari can’t go. And if we could get some kind of multi-positional interior guy that’d be good. Maybe in FA.
We usually have 7 active on gameday, so in my view, we need to acquire one starter and two dependable backups. I’d be amenable to keeping Spriggs or McCray on the inactive 53 unless we can get somebody better.
They have 2 linemen in Bahktiari and Lindsley. They should draft 3 at least. Tired of seeing undrafted free agents that stink. They were undrafted because they stink and don’t belong in the NFL!