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Countdown to camp: Packers possess veteran experience across offensive front

First-round pick Jordan Morgan is top prospect to watch

T/G Jordan Morgan
T/G Jordan Morgan

"Countdown to camp" is a position-by-position overview of the Packers' roster heading into training camp. The series continues with the offensive line.

GREEN BAY – The Packers' offensive line in 2024 might feature five returning veterans.

Might being the operative word.

Because while it's entirely possible Green Bay will open the new season with Rasheed Walker at left tackle, Elgton Jenkins at left guard, Josh Myers at center, Sean Rhyan at right guard and Zach Tom at right tackle, it's not a given.

Not when a first-round draft pick is used on an offensive lineman, which in this case is Arizona's Jordan Morgan, whom the Packers selected at No. 25 overall. Morgan started 37 games at left tackle over five years with the Wildcats, working all the way from part-timer up to first-team All-Pac-12 honors in 2023.

During OTAs and minicamp, Morgan (6-5, 311) took snaps everywhere across the line except center, so he could be battling for a starting job this summer at various spots.

He could compete at left tackle with Walker (6-6, 324), the third-year pro who eventually beat out Yosh Nijman last season, turning a job-sharing arrangement into his full-time gig down the stretch. A seventh-round pick out of Penn State in 2022, Walker was arguably the most improved player on the Packers’ entire roster last season.

Or Morgan could compete at right guard with Rhyan (6-5, 321), who was job sharing with Jon Runyan through the back half of last season. A third-round pick from UCLA in '22, Rhyan never got his footing as a rookie but was another lineman who made a significant Year 2 jump.

The Packers also might need Morgan at right tackle, because Tom missed all of OTAs and minicamp with a torn pectoral muscle. While he's expected to return for training camp, whether he gets back to full strength for the start of practices or sometime later in camp remains to be seen.

A fourth-round pick in '22 from Wake Forest, Tom (6-4, 304) has relatively quickly established himself as a mainstay up front for the Packers, though it's still not entirely clear what his best position is. Lots of speculation about him moving to guard or center this offseason went for naught due to the injury, so the best bet at this point is he stays put at right tackle, where he started every game last year.

The least amount of uncertainty this offseason was found with Jenkins (6-5, 311), the sixth-year vet and two-time Pro Bowler with 74 career starts (including playoffs) under his belt, the vast majority of them at left guard, and Myers (6-5, 310), who has started 38 straight games at center (including playoffs) dating back to the tail end of his rookie season in '21.

With Nijman, Runyan, and five-time All-Pro David Bakhtiari moving on from Green Bay this spring, the Packers refortified their depth in both the draft and free agency.

The following is the fourth installment in a series of photos examining the Packers' roster position by position. This installment examines the offensive line.

In addition to Morgan, the Packers drafted Duke's Jacob Monk in the fifth round and Georgia State's Travis Glover in the sixth. Both prospects have attractive size and plenty of college experience, with Monk (6-3, 308) starting 58 games, most of them at center and right guard, and Glover (6-6, 317) starting 57 at left and right tackle over five seasons each.

The line's veteran depth was given a boost with the free-agent addition of former first-rounder Andre Dillard, who started 10 games at left tackle for Tennessee last season after four years in Philadelphia that were hampered by injuries. Dillard (6-5, 315) was the Eagles' first-round draft pick in 2019.

The rest of the line's depth is led experience-wise by Royce Newman (6-5, 310), a fourth-round pick in '21 who has started 24 games over three seasons, most of them at right guard.

Three returnees at tackle who have received little to no playing time thus far are Luke Tenuta, Caleb Jones and Kadeem Telfort.

Tenuta (6-8, 314), originally a sixth-round pick by Buffalo who was eventually claimed off waivers from Indianapolis, saw limited action on special teams in '22 but then lost all of last season to an ankle injury. Jones (6-9, 370), undrafted in '22 from Indiana, has been on the active roster most of the last two seasons when healthy but has appeared in just one game. Telfort (6-7, 322), an undrafted rookie last year from UAB, spent all of 2023 on the practice squad.

Two additional developmental prospects are Lecitus Smith and Donovan Jennings.

Smith (6-3, 314) is an interior lineman drafted by the Cardinals in the sixth round in '22, when he appeared in 10 games as a rookie. Since then, he's spent time in Houston and Philadelphia on their practice squads.

Jennings (6-4, 323) is an undrafted rookie from South Florida who played in 55 career games with 45 starts, all at left tackle, over six seasons.

Countdown to camp series:

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