Green Bay Packers: 2020 is a Make or Break Year for Billy Turner

After a below-average 2019 season from Billy Turner, 2020 appears to be a make or break season for him with the Green Bay Packers.

Among the myriad of issues that plagued this Green Bay Packers team in 2018, the revolving door at right guard was certainly one of them. While the position was primarily held by Byron Bell, we saw Justin McCray get some reps there as well and neither were able to provide any sort of stability.

As a result, GM Brian Gutekunst would sign free agent Billy Turner to a four year – $28 million deal, which did seem a bit steep at the time. However, if that is the price to keep Aaron Rodgers upright, then it is well worth it. But with Turner, has it been?

Selected in the third round of the 2014 draft by the Miami Dolphins, Turner is known for his versatility, being able to play guard or tackle, but he had an up and down start to his career.

After having mixed results with the Miami Dolphins, Turner was cut during the 2016 season before ultimately ending up with Denver. It wasn’t until the 2018 season that Turner would see significant playing time and he did not disappoint as he put together the best year of his career. And even ranked as the 33rd best guard in football by Pro Football Focus (subscription required).

Unfortunately for Turner and the Green Bay Packers, his play would drop-off this past season and while he was still an upgrade over Bell – which isn’t saying a heck of a lot – many didn’t feel that he lived up to the contract that he received.

Although he’d put together a few solid games here and there, overall he was sub-par in 2019. According to PFF, Turner would allow nine sacks and 52 total pressures in 764 pass-blocking attempts. For some context, over 694 pass-blocking attempts, Elgton Jenkins wouldn’t give up a single sack and he allowed just 24 total pressures.

On top of that, of the 63 guards that played at least 50 percent of their team’s offensive snaps in 2019, Turner ranked 58th in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency metric.

Additionally, Andy Herman of Packer Report had similar negative marks when it came to Turner’s 2019 performance. If you’re unfamiliar with Andy’s work, each week during the season he goes through and grades every snap for every player. A player can receive anywhere from -2 to +2 on every play. If they grade out with a 0, then they were average.

Well, by the end of the NFC Championship game, Turner was well below average with a cumulative score of -5.85 for the year. The next closest starting offensive lineman was Bryan Bulaga at +1.85. Certainly not very encouraging results.

So as we look ahead to the upcoming season, given Turner’s play this past year, 2020 appears to be a make or break season for him as a Green Bay Packer.

Despite Turner signing a fairly lucrative contract just one year ago, the Packers do have an out after the 2020 season. In 2021, Turner comes with a cap hit of $8.05 million. However, his dead cap hit if he were to be cut is only $4.5 million. Thus giving Green Bay roughly $3.5 million in additional cap space if they do decide to move on from him.

And considering that David Bakhtiari, Kenny Clark, Corey Linsley, Aaron Jones, Jamaal Williams, and Kevin King are all free agents next offseason, Green Bay could use every bit of cap space that they can find.

Hopefully, this isn’t the case since obviously we want to see Turner play well. But if his play doesn’t improve in 2020, there is certainly the very real possibility that this season will be his last here in Titletown.