Royce Newman Taking RT Snaps w/ Packers 1st Team Offense

With David Bakhtiari and Elgton Jenkins both on the PUP list, the Green Bay Packers find themselves lacking some experienced depth at the offensive tackle position–one of the most important in the game.

Now, hopefully, neither of those absences linger too long as Brian Gutekunst would tell reporters on Wednesday that he is “cautiously optimistic” about Bakhtiari — although he wouldn’t provide a timeline — while also mentioning that Jenkins is “ahead of schedule.”

However, as we all learned just last year with Bakhtiari, we don’t want to count our chickens before they’ve hatched, as they say, and in the meantime, the Packers are a bit thin at a very important position.

My guess is that without Bakhtiari and Jenkins for the time being, we will see a few players taking snaps at right tackle with Yosh Nijman cemented at left tackle. But on the first day of training camp, it was Royce Newman who was at right tackle with the Packers’ first-team offense.

Newman was Green Bay’s starting right guard for the first 16 games of the 2021 season before he was benched in Week 18, as well as in the playoffs, once Josh Myers was healthy at center—which then led to Lucas Patrick sliding over to right guard.

Overall, Newman allowed six sacks and 32 pressures, along with numerous ups and downs, but he would improve as the season went along. PFF credited him with allowing only one sack after Week 9 and only seven pressures over his final five games. However, picking up stunts in pass protection was an issue the entire season, and he particularly struggled as a run-blocker.

Newman does have right tackle experience from his time at Ole Miss, starting there his entire final season. In 382 pass-blocking reps, Newman was credited with allowing two sacks and 24 pressures–ranking 83rd in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency metric out of 111. He would also rank 53rd out of 104 eligible tackles in run-blocking by PFF’s grading system.

Other candidates that we could see at tackle include Cole Van Lanen, who spent most of 2021 on the practice squad but did take some right tackle snaps with the first team offense during minicamp. There is also Zach Tom, who played some offensive tackle at Wake Forest and was the left tackle with the second-team offense on Wednesday. Green Bay also has Sean Rhyan, who was primarily a left tackle during his time at UCLA.

As we’ve seen and heard from Matt LaFleur over the years, it’s all about finding the best five offensive linemen, which is why above, I mentioned that I wouldn’t be surprised to see several players taking snaps at right tackle with the starters.

Hopefully, this article and discussion all ends up being a moot point sooner than later, with Bakhtiari and Jenkins returning. It’s difficult to envision the offense moving the ball with any sort of regularity without at least one of them — but preferably both — on the field.

For a Packers offense that is going to have to find a way to replace Davante Adams’ lost production, a successful 2022 season all begins up front with the play of the offensive line–specifically by having a strong run game and also giving Aaron Rodgers enough time in the pocket. If those two things can happen on a consistent basis, there will be positive trickle-down effects to the rest of the offense in a variety of ways.