GREEN BAY, Wis. — It’s almost unfathomable to imagine an offensive line undergoing as many alterations as the Green Bay Packers’ has through the first three weeks of the regular season, but that’s the horrendous reality of the situation.
With injuries mounting across the board, the Packers have inexplicably used six different combinations for their starting offensive line in the last 11 days, starting with the Sept. 13 opener against the Minnesota Vikings and ending with Thursday night’s loss to the Atlanta Falcons in Green Bay.
A seventh could be on the horizon.
Starting center Sean Rhyan suffered a hand injury in the 21-point loss to the Falcons, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Rhyan had X-rays on his hand after the game, but it’s currently unclear whether it was his left hand or his snapping hand. The former third-round pick is in his first full season as the team’s starting center after making the transition last November following a season-ending injury to then-center Elgton Jenkins.
The Packers will, at the very least, have the luxury of a 10-day gap between games. The next time they take the field will be at Raymond James Stadium on Oct. 4 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the hope is that Rhyan will join them, assuming his X-rays come back negative.
If not, the Packers will have to get even more creative with an offensive line that has routinely failed to protect its quarterback.
“I think that’s tough on a quarterback if you’re constantly getting hit and throwing off your back foot,” head coach Matt LaFleur said of the 12 hits administered to Jordan Love. “It’s hard to trust everything that’s going on around you, but we also have to look at things we can do schematically to alleviate some of that pressure.”
Behind the Packers’ replacement-level offensive line, Love attempted 53 passes—one shy of matching his career high—and the Packers ran the ball just eight times between their two tailbacks. The lack of continuity with their offensive line and the failure to execute on third downs—they went three-and-out five times—helped expedite the Packers’ demise to a Falcons team that scored 27 unanswered points.
If Rhyan has to be replaced, there’s a chance that the Packers’ predicament will only get even worse from here. He allowed the fewest pressures (2) among their starting offensive linemen Thursday night.
“It’s difficult,” said Love of the Packers’ disaster of a line. “That’s where I can improve at making quicker decisions, understanding the coverages and where I can get the ball out and find completions. I have to do a better job of finding completions through the course of the game to help us stay on track as an offense and stay out of some of the bad situations."
“I think there’s always—it’s the NFL; there’s always plays where there’s going to be pressure. Sometimes you have more time in the pocket. But, as a quarterback, I have to operate a lot faster and be more accurate and just find completions to help us as an offense.”
Rookie Jager Burton is currently listed as the backup center, but he’s filling in at left guard for Aaron Banks. Burton logged the first start of his career Thursday night, and it was ghastly; he was responsible for allowing 10 pressures on Jordan Love.
Banks has been in and out of the Packers’ lineup all summer while battling tendinitis in his knee, but he also sustained a toe injury in last weekend’s win over the New York Jets. His erratic health is something that’s going to be monitored on a weekly basis throughout the season—the Packers can never say for certain that he’s going to play on any given Sunday. Before Burton, the Packers used Donovan Jennings to replace Banks at left guard, but that didn’t prove to be a fruitful endeavor, either.
Jacob Monk is the Packers’ right guard, but he’s now been injured in back-to-back games. He exited late in the fourth quarter against the Falcons with an unspecified injury, and the Packers had to call on Jennings to fill in. The former sixth-round pick has been far from spectacular—he’s allowed 11 pressures through three games, including six on Thursday night alone.
Right tackle is already a question mark with Anthony Belton, a second-round pick last spring, subbing in for Zach Bako-Bewele. That’s unlikely to change anytime soon, considering Bako-Bewele suffered a complete tear of his patellar tendon; he’s going to be on the shelf for anywhere from eight to 10 months.
All eight of the offensive linemen on the Packers’ active roster were available versus the Falcons, including Travis Glover and John Williams, who were healthy scratches four days prior against the Jets. Josh Gesky, Dillon Wade, Dalton Cooper, and newly-signed Cordell Volson are all options on the practice squad, but it’s hard to imagine that the Packers’ woes stem from the players themselves and not how they’re being coached.
There isn’t an elixir that will cure their problems, just like there isn’t a player out there who will be able to come in and bandage their wounds. Any step forward that the Packers take will be done with the players they have in-house, but imagining that path is becoming a tall task.
Zachary Jacobson is the author of The Packer Dispatch. He is entering his 12th season covering the Green Bay Packers after spending seven as the Editor-in-Chief of Packer Report. He is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America. Follow him on Twitter @zachjacobson or contact him via email at itszachariahj@gmail.com.