Green Bay Packers should consider bringing Bryan Bulaga back in 2020

Bryan Bulaga is in the final year of his contract but given how he has played, the Green Bay Packers should strongly consider bringing him back.

Right Tackle, Bryan Bulaga is a bit of a hot-button topic amongst Green Bay Packers fans but as he is currently in the final year of his five year – $33.75 million contract, the team will have to decide if they want to bring him back in 2020 and beyond.

Many may be ready to move on from Bulaga given his injury history, and that is a fair point. From 2010 to 2018 he has only started all 16 games one time, including a 2013 season where he missed the entire year and in 2017 where he’d make only five starts.

With that said, I do think his injury history has been a bit embellished over the years. Taking out the 2013 and 2017 seasons where he suffered major injuries, he has played in 59 out of his last 66 games. And in those same seasons, he has been top 10 on the team in total snap percentage as well.

Of course, I wish he had been more durable over his career but Bulaga has been one of the best in the game for a number of years now at premier position and forms what is perhaps the best tackle duo in the league with David Bakhtiari.

Finding a top-tier tackle is incredibly difficult to do. They rarely hit free agency, which means teams need to find them in the draft. Given that as well as how well Bulaga has played over the last year, it is going to be difficult to not bring him back.

Last season he would finish with a pass-blocking grade of 84.1 from Pro Football Focus, which is the sixth-highest pass-blocking grade they’ve ever given to a tackle since they started grading. In Bulaga’s 559 pass-blocking attempts, he would allow only 14 pressures and he would finish the season with 136 consecutive pass-blocks without allowing a single pressure. That was the longest streak for any tackle or guard in 2018.

Another metric is used by ESPN Analytics and measures an offensive lineman’s “pass-block win rate,” which is the rate at which an offensive lineman can sustain a block for 2.5 seconds or longer. Of all the tackles in 2018, Bulaga finished second with a success rate of 92 percent.

Although we are only two games into the 2019 season, we have seen much of the same from Bulaga. Up against some very good competition in Khalil Mack and Leonard Floyd in week one, followed by Everson Griffen and Danielle Hunter in week two, Bulaga has allowed only one quarterback hurry this season. He’s been very good in the running game as well.

At this point, if the Green Bay Packers do decide to let Bulaga walk at the end of the season, they don’t have a reliable option currently on the roster to fill his role. Alex Light had a nice preseason but he is still an unknown and there is some risk involved. Meanwhile, Billy Turner has been much better as a guard over his career than a tackle, so once again, I’m not sure how confident anyone would be with that move.

When it comes to Bryan Bulaga, it all starts with his health and availability. When he’s on the field, there just aren’t many that are better at the tackle position than he is. However, as we all know, staying on the field has been an issue at times.

If he can stay healthy for a majority of the 2019 season and continues to play at the level that he has been, the Green Bay Packers have to strongly consider bringing him back.