Green Bay Packers: Yosh Nijman Expected to Start at LT v. 49ers
By Paul Bretl
After suffering an ankle injury against the Detroit Lions on Monday Night, Elgton Jenkins would miss each of last week’s practices. The Green Bay Packers then listed him as doubtful on Friday and then ruled him out on Saturday.
So the big question facing the Green Bay Packers was, who is going to start at left tackle?
As I wrote a few days ago, I expected Green Bay to move Billy Turner over to left tackle, where he has over 400 career snaps and plenty of overall experience as a starter, and then Dennis Kelly would be the right tackle—a position that he started at all of 2020 with Tennessee.
However, Matt LaFleur and the Green Bay Packers went in another direction. According to Tom Pelissero, Yosh Nijman — not Turner — is expected to be the starting left tackle against San Francisco.
This will be Nijman’s first career NFL start. He has only 15 career regular season snaps, according to PFF ($$), all of which came in 2020. He didn’t allow a pressure or a sack, but 14 of those snaps came as a run-blocker.
Nijman saw plenty of reps this preseason, however, and to his credit, he bounced back well after a rough showing against Houston in the opener.
In 88 total pass-blocking snaps, Nijman allowed one sack and two pressures. He was also the Packers second-highest graded run blocker among offensive linemen with at least 20 run blocking snaps.
Nijman will be making his debut in a difficult road environment and will likely be up against Nick Bosa for much of the game. This is also a San Francisco defense that has logged 52 pressures this season, which is the third-highest total in the NFL.
As Matt LaFleur always says, it’s about putting the best five offensive linemen on the field, and although Nijman certainly doesn’t have the experience of Turner or Kelly, the Packers believe that this configuration gives them the best opportunity to win.