Green Bay Packers: Offensive Line has been Excellent in Pass Protection

Unless they’re making mistakes, the offensive line usually flies under the radar, but for the Green Bay Packers in 2019 they have been excellent. Especially in pass protection.

Not to open old wounds but it was clear that the 2018 Green Bay Packers had a myriad of problems, one of which was the overall play and health of the offensive line. Both David Bakhtiari and Byran Bulaga would miss some time with injuries. Meanwhile Lane Taylor was playing through injuries which caused his performance to suffer and Byron Bell was a revolving door at right guard.

In the end, the Packers would give up 53 sacks last season, the fourth most in all of football. Now, to defend the offensive line for a second, Aaron Rodgers did hold the ball too long at times and this was a very pass-happy offense. Meaning, there were simply more opportunities for sacks to be allowed. But with that said, it was still a down season overall.

Fortunately, 2019 has been a different story. Incoming free agent Billy Turner and rookie Elgton Jenkins have helped solidify the guard positions while the unit as a whole has been relatively healthy. And the end result is the Packers having one of, if not the best pass protection unit in the NFL.

When trying to evaluate offensive line play it’s not  as easy as looking at other positions where there is an abundance of different statistics to pore over. But there are metrics available that can measure the effectiveness of an offensive line.

The first and most obvious is sacks allowed. While there are still two games to be played in the regular season, the Green Bay Packers have given up just 26 sacks up to this point. Certainly a far cry from last year’s 53. Not to mention that the 26 allowed ranks as the sixth fewest in all of football.

Another measurement created by the ESPN analytics department is called Pass-Block Win Rate. What it does is it tells the rate at which an offensive lineman can sustain their block for 2.5 seconds or longer, which is then considered a “win.” Broken into position groups, David Bakhtiari rank second among tackles with a win rate of 95 percent. Meanwhile Elgton Jenkins is the third ranked guard with a 96 percent win rate. And Corey Linsley is leading all centers with a rate of 98 percent. As a team, the Green Bay Packers are first in the league with an overall win rate of 71 percent.

Lastly we can take a look at how long Rodgers has on average to throw the ball. And according to NFL Next Gen Stats, Rodgers holds the ball for an average of 2.9 seconds, which is the fourth longest of all quarterbacks. Certainly a reflection of the time that his offensive line unit has given him in the pocket.

Not to mention that the Packers’ offensive line has been this dominant against some of the best pass-rushers the NFL has to offer, including Khalil Mack, Von Miller, DeMarcus Lawrence, and Danielle Hunter just to name a few.

As always there are a number of factors for the Green Bay Packers’ success in 2019 but a big contributor has been the play of the offensive line. And although the passing game has been inconsistent this season, for the most part, that has nothing to do with Green Bay’s pass protection.