Battling in the trenches as an offensive lineman is one of the most thankless and strenuous roles in all of professional sports, but it's also one of the most vital to the success of a team. Few individuals understand that better than two-time Pro Bowl guard T.J. Lang, who spent eight years on the front line for the Green Bay Packers, protecting Aaron Rodgers.
During a recent appearance on ESPN Milwaukee's "The Homer Hour," Lang did not hold back with his criticism of the Packers' O-Line's Week 1 performance and the coaching staff in Green Bay:
"It's so frustrating when you watch the quarterback taking shots and you watch some of the extracurricular activities that go on without anybody doing anything about it," Lang explained. "To me, it looks like it's coached... your teammates need to know that you have their back."
Lang felt like the Packers' coaches were allowing the Vikings to get past the frontline in hopes of racking up penalties, which put franchise quarterback Jordan Love at risk of getting pummeled or worse. Not only was it a lack of focus from the players themselves, but if this is true and head coach Matt LaFleur and offensive line coach Luke Butkus allowed this to happen willingly, that's a complete disservice to their QB and O-Line alike.
The Packers' offensive line needs to be better if Green Bay wants to have any chance of being a playoff team.
This isn't just an eye-test issue — the stats back it up. According to ESPN's Rob Demovsky, the Packers' offensive front allowed 10 unblocked pressures to the Vikings in their Week 1 meltdown. Minnesota got through to Love for 15 quarterback hits, the most in the league so far, and the Packers posted a 9% pass-block win rate, which was also the worst in the league.
We knew this offensive line would be a work in progress, and that was solidified when PFF ranked Green Bay as having the sixth-worst O-Line in the league entering this season. To make matters more complicated, they're operating at limited capacity in the running back room, and Tucker Kraft is in the process of regaining his footing in return from injury, which has made his blocking somewhat inconsistent compared to what we're used to.
So while personnel does play a factor, as Lang himself said, this comes back to coaching. Over the years, Luke Butkus has managed to get the best out of some of his players, but he's clearly missing the mark so far this year, and that trickles back to LaFleur as well, who put together a disaster class in his first game of the 2026 regular season.
Unless the Packers' offensive line can learn from its mistakes and make sure Jordan Love has more time to operate in the pocket moving forward, this might end up being one of the messiest Green Bay seasons in recent memory. It's up to the coaching staff to make sure that doesn't come to fruition.
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