5 Early Takeaways from Packers Training Camp Practices

Constant Movement along the Packers Offensive Line

The term that Matt LaFleur used this past week was “fluid” when describing the configuration of the offensive line.

This, of course, shouldn’t come as a surprise and was something I wrote about earlier this offseason. The calling card of this Packers’ offensive line is their versatility, and we know that LaFleur and Adam Stenavich aren’t afraid to mix and match as they search for the best five–especially with David Bakhtiari and Elgton Jenkins sidelined.

Yosh Nijman has seen work at both tackle positions. Rookie Zach Tom can truly play all five positions, while Sean Rhyan, Cole Van Lanen, and Royce Newman can play either guard or tackle. Jon Runyan, Josh Myers, and Jake Hanson can also play any of the interior positions as well.

So far through the first few days of training camp, we’ve seen two different starting offensive line configurations. One consists of Nijman at left tackle, followed by Runyan, Myers, Hanson, and Newman. The other from left to right goes Tom, Runyan, Myers, Newman, and Nijman.

As we saw a season ago, the Packers can make it work along the offensive line without their two best players, but for this team to reach its full potential, they’ll need Bakhtiari and Jenkins back as soon as possible.

Although this group held their own in 2021, as expected, they weren’t nearly as dominant as they had been the year before–which meant the run game wasn’t as effective, and Aaron Rodgers didn’t have as much time. There were then negative trickle-down effects to the rest of the offense because of this.