Green Bay Packers: “Week 1 may be Unlikely” for Billy Turner

More bad news for the Green Bay Packers as they will likely be without Billy Turner Week 1 against the Minnesota Vikings.

After learning earlier this morning that Kamal Martin is going to miss 6-8 weeks following knee surgery, the Green Bay Packers received some more bad news as ESPN’s Rob Demovsky reported that after tweaking his knee in Sunday’s scrimmage, “Week 1 may be unlikely” for Billy Turner.

Despite the skepticism surrounding Turner playing tackle this season – including plenty from me – by all accounts, he has fared quite well in that role while Rick Wagner was sidelined. Mike Spofford of Packers.com mentions Turner winning one-on-one matchups against Za’Darius Smith and also facing the red-hot Rashan Gary.

These kinds of performances have occurred regularly for Turner, and Andy Herman of Packer Report has summed up his play by saying that he’s had “almost no issues in Rick Wagner’s absence.”

With Lane Taylor looking like one of the best offensive linemen in camp, I’m not sure how Matt LaFleur keeps him off the field, and when we consider Turner’s play along with the fact that Wagner had missed some time with an injury, my guess is that Turner had the inside track to the starting right tackle spot.

However, not anymore. At least not for Week 1.

A positive in all of this is that Wagner has returned from his injury, but what was already a thin and inexperienced tackle group is in even worse shape now without Turner’s availability.

Wagner has battled injuries throughout his career and is still adapting to a new offense after missing practice time. Then there is Alex Light, who struggled when called upon last season and has taken his lumps in camp, and behind him are several players who have no regular-season snaps at the tackle position.

Or if needed, perhaps Green Bay gets really wild and moves Taylor to right tackle while Lucas Patrick takes over at right guard.

Now, one way to remedy all of this is GM Brian Gutekunst could hop on the phone and give Jared Veldheer a call, who has hinted at wanting to come back to Green Bay. He performed quite well in 2019 filling in for Bryan Bulaga in some big games, he won’t break the bank, and he knows the offense. But I digress.

The Green Bay Packers’ offensive line – particularly the tackles – has a difficult matchup Week 1 against a Minnesota Vikings pass-rush that features Danielle Hunter and the recently acquired Yannick Ngakoue. Even before the news broke that Green Bay would be without Turner, there were some concerns about the right tackle position, and now, there are even more.