Green Bay Packers: Jake Hanson Making a Good First Impression

Green Bay Packers’ rookie center, Jake Hanson, has already made an excellent first impression even though he hasn’t been with the team very long.

In this year’s draft, the Green Bay Packers went on a run in the sixth round by selecting three interior offensive linemen. And at pick 208, they would select Jake Hanson, the center from Oregon.

In today’s NFL, Hanson is one of the more experienced rookies that we will see. While at Oregon, he made 49 starts, all of which came at the center position, and during his junior and senior seasons, he was named second-team All-Pac 12.

At the combine, Hanson’s 40-yard dash time was nothing to write home about; however, he did put up 33 reps on the bench press. Not to mention that while at Oregon, he had shown that he could be quite effective in a zone-blocking system. This is, of course, good news for the Green Bay Packers.

On top of that, he was an excellent pass-blocker. According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), during his final three seasons, which spanned 1,233 pass-blocking attempts, Hanson gave up just two sacks and three quarterback hits.

With Corey Linsley on the roster, barring an injury, Hanson’s 2020 season in Green Bay is likely to look like a redshirt year for him. And even though players have only been in the building for a few days, between walkthroughs and offseason Zoom calls, as Linsley told reporters, Hanson has already made a very good first impression:

"“Really intelligent, picked up on the playbook really well so far. Very attentive, good kid, meshing well with everyone in the room. Seems to be very intelligent.”"

When it comes to Linsley, the Green Bay Packers are in a tough spot following this season. While his rapport with Aaron Rodgers is unmatched and he has been one of the better centers in football for a few years now, Linsley is a free agent at the end of the season when the Packers, once again, won’t have a ton of spendable cap space.

To make matters even more difficult, joining Linsley as a 2021 free agent is Kenny Clark, David Bakhtiari, Aaron Jones, and Kevin King. Where Linsley falls on that list in terms of priority, we don’t know, but it certainly isn’t in the top-2, and he could even be No. 5.

Given the circumstances, when Linsley was asked by reporters about his future with the team, he responded with, “I have no idea what’s going to happen.”

Well, at this moment, I’d say the odds are that this is Linsley’s final season in Titletown, and Jake Hanson is the likely successor.

While relying on a sixth-round pick to be your team’s starting center may leave a few scratching their heads, once upon a time, Linsley was a fifth-round pick who had to start Week 1 of his rookie season on the road in Seattle.

Now, by no means am I saying that Hanson is the next Linsley because he was a Day 3 pick. However, what I am saying is that Hanson will have a year to learn the offense, he’s an experienced college player, and next summer he will have just as good of a chance as any to win the starting job.

Lucas Patrick is another player who will be competing for that job, but considering that 2021 is the final year of his current deal and he will be in his age 28 season, in a perfect world for the Packers, Hanson would be the starting center.

With all of that said, we still have a ways to go before we get the answers to these questions, and who knows, maybe Linsley is back. But for now, what we do know is that Jake Hanson has made an excellent first impression, and he could very well end up being the future starting center of the Green Bay Packers.