Green Bay Packers 2019 Offensive Line

[Packerraymond]

20 minutes ago, vegas492 said:

Anyone else find it odd that Spriggs hasn't signed somewhere yet?

I thought I saw where Shonn Coleman (SF) is out for the year with a fractured leg and ankle injury.  I thought for sure they'd look at Spriggs.

Too early for him to sign?  ...he waiting for an injury to a starter?   It's just odd to me.

Spriggs and Donnerson still belong to GB. To keep teams from putting anyone with potential on IR after they hurt themselves the NFL makes you waive with an injury designation anyone you out in IR in camp. Any team can claim them to their roster. If no one does they go to your IR. From there you can either keep them there or come to a settlement. With Spriggs being a FA, imagine they'll come to a settlement and he'll be gone soon. Donnerson they may leave on IR all year as he's only a 2nd year guy .

[green machine]

4 minutes ago, Packer_ESP said:

As far as I know he's on IR, there was no injury settlement. Hecan't sign with anyone else.

Confirmed on packers.com

[Chili]

A little thought exercise: We're going to keep 9 OL for our final 53.

Just for the sake of the argument lets assume the first five is: Bakhtiari, Jenkins, Linsley, Turner, Bulaga. We know that all 5 of them are guaranteed to be on the roster.

If Bulaga got injured Turner would probably shift over. Despite his less than ideal fit for the offence and his cap hit as a backup it does makes sense to keep Taylor. He will probably fill in both guard spots very comfortably and keep our OL standard at a good level which will give us that added peace of mind. That makes 6.

If Bakhtiari got injured then right now it has to be Light. That makes 7.

If Linsley got injured we would probably move Jenkins over and slot Taylor in at LG.  If that the case then we will keep either Madison or Pankey to backup the guard and tackle spots. Otherwise the next best backup centre is probably Patrick who can also play the guard spots. I think the latter is unlikely as you only need two players who can play centre, I think having three is too many. I think Madison takes this just by virtue of being a draft pick.  That's 8.

The 9th guy has to be another tackle imo. Its one of either Pankey, de Beer or Nijman. It would not surprise me if we keep a project player with massive upside over someone who can play right away. He's going to be a game day inactive anyway so you might as well keep the rawest, highest potential player to develop. That's Nijman. 9.

Now that the thought exercise is over it doesn't look good for McCray doesn't it. I know I've been banging on about Taylor being a possible cut but the fact he is still the starting LG at this stage of training camp makes it more likely we will keep him and he would definitely give us solid depth at both guard spots should he be a backup. I feel weird about de Beer dropping out completely as he started the 1st preseason game at RT ahead of Pankey and Nijman but Turner's versatility and status is what pushes these other tackles out of the team.

So the losers are: McCray, Pankey, Patrick, de Beer, Coyle.

Pankey and de Beer needs to outplay Light if they want to land the backup swing tackle spot. Still time for that to happen.

McCray needs to outplay Taylor for the backup guard spot. Its either one or the other - we won't be keeping both. McCray has age, contract and versatility on his side so we'll see. Maybe we will surprise everybody by cutting both and instead keep Pankey as he can play all along the line except centre.

I think Patrick and Coyle are going to miss out regardless of what they do. They're going to have to rely on injuries to have any shot of making the roster.

Is this a fair assessment?

Edited August 12, 2019 by Chili

[CWood21]

20 minutes ago, Chili said:

Is this a fair assessment?

I think you're most likely going to carry 8 OL, unless you have a developmental type you really want to protect.  On Game Day, you've got your 5 starters active and you're likely got two backups active.  One being your swing tackle (Alex Light) and one being a swing IOL (Jenkins).  So anyone who isn't a top 7 OL is going to be a healthy scratch on Game Day.  So if you're going to keep more than 8 OL, you're going to have to make a strong argument that their long term potential outweighs someone who might make a bigger impact on the roster for the 2019 season.  If you're looking at your 8th OL, I think you're looking at whoever has the most positional versatility.  And I think you're also talking about the guy who is least likely to be claimed.  Who would that be?

EDIT: I think I'm not being clear enough.  You normally carry 8 OL, but you'll carry a 9th if there is a developmental type you like.  And given how much the Packers have talked about their OL, I think 9 OL is the way they're going to go.

[OneTwoSixFive]

I'd look at it like this. 

Assume for now the front five are Bakhtiari, Taylor, Linsley, Turner, Bulaga. 

With Jenkins as OL no.6, you have all positions except maybe LT covered since Jenkins either fills in for an injury himself, or the Packers sub him in at RG in for Turner who can move to RT. I believe that makes the 7th OL Light, who has been covering LT in practice and not just with the scrubs.

This leaves you with Madison, McCray, Patrick, deBeer. It's real guesswork from here as all positions are double covered.  I'd probably go with Madison as no.8 and if they go 9 on the OL, I'm betting McCray over Patrick and deBeer. Nijman is pure PS for me, mostly these pure athletic profile types end up there with little chance of being claimed, just like see Kofi Amichia was in 2017. 

[CWood21]

11 minutes ago, OneTwoSixFive said:

This leaves you with Madison, McCray, Patrick, deBeer. It's real guesswork from here as all positions are double covered.  I'd probably go with Madison as no.8 and if they go 9 on the OL, I'm betting McCray over Patrick and deBeer. Nijman is pure PS for me, mostly these pure athletic profile types end up there with little chance of being claimed, just like see Kofi Amichia was in 2017. 

Honestly, I'm more curious about the backup OL than I probably should be.  Someone's going to gamble on Cole Madison, even if it means sticking him on the inactive list the ENTIRE season.  I'm pretty sure we've exposed de Beer to waivers before, so I think he's someone they feel fairly confident will fall through.  McCray and Patrick were both on the roster a year ago, and fairly certain someone would try and claim them.

[Golfman]

3 hours ago, CWood21 said:

No.  I think it's still Lane Taylor's position to lose.  I don't think we're carrying a pure OG with a nearly $5.5M cap hit on our bench.  Lane Taylor will almost assuredly be our starting LG to start the year, but I think he's going to get pushed out by the end of the season.  Right now, Spotrac has the Packers at ~$13.6M in cap space, and they usually roll over around ~$7M.  They've got a few upcoming FAs with decision to be made on them including Bryan Bulaga, Geronimo Allison, Kyler Fackrell, and Blake Martinez.  Of the four, I think only Martinez would be considered somewhat of a priority, but their focus is probably on locking up Kenny Clark long term.

100% agree with this. If Taylor is on the roster week 1 his deal is guaranteed so I think that then becomes an off season question as to him or Linsley if we don't think we can afford Linsley and Jenkins can play center, his college position, it could get interesting. 

I think you have to get Clark and Martinez done this off season. 

Edited August 12, 2019 by Golfman

[Golfman]

4 hours ago, AlexGreen#20 said:

Nelson might not even be a better Guard than Bulaga would be if you had told Bulaga about the position switch in January

Oh come on now! Quinten Nelson is the best guard in the league right now, with all due respect to Zack Martin. Bulaga is at the end of the road due to the amount of injuries he's had. 

[AlexGreen#20]

6 minutes ago, Golfman said:

Oh come on now! Quinten Nelson is the best guard in the league right now, with all due respect to Zack Martin. Bulaga is at the end of the road due to the amount of injuries he's had. 

Quenton Nelson (always gives me confidence I'm dealing with someone who knows what they're talking about when they misspell the dude's name) is on the same tier as DeCastro, Yanda, Scherff, Martin, and a few other guys. The only reason anybody acts like he's a transcendent player is because he was drafted super high overall because the Colts are dumb as hell. He's a damn good player, nobody's debating that point.

But . . . 

Bulaga was a top 15ish OT last year, and at this point in his career probably has a better profile for Guard than he does for a Tackle. Almost every Tackle in the league that has functioning hands would be noticeably better at Guard than at Tackle. Their athleticism is just on a different level. 

[Norm]

I don't have any idea, I don't watch the Colts interior line tape, but seems to me over the years( wouldn't matter if I did) the best interior lineman, are just whoever is talked about the most. Which whatever, you can't expect everyone to know every guard. 

Nelson's mention rate might be the highest of any lineman over the last year, including tackles

I ***** about the same thing with old timey football. **** load of guys that get talked about so much they end up in front of guys "easily" that they clearly aren't better than. 

[Chili]

I will say this. Bulaga was projected to be an elite guard coming out of college and merely a solid tackle.

Instead he ended up being an elite tackle. Could the projection for him being an elite guard still hold true 9 years later.

[Norm]

7 minutes ago, Chili said:

merely a solid tackle

I can't read. Make fun of me

Edited August 12, 2019 by Norm

[Chili]

Just now, Norm said:

No.

I remember all the talk about his "short" arms and the online scouting reports weren't confident about his projection to tackle in the NFL but nearly all of them felt he would be an elite guard.

[Norm]

2 minutes ago, Chili said:

I remember all the talk about his "short" arms and the online scouting reports weren't confident about his projection to tackle in the NFL but nearly all of them felt he would be an elite guard.

Check edit. You were right. I filled in words into your post in my head before I read it all. Mah bad.

Edited August 12, 2019 by Norm

[AlexGreen#20]

13 minutes ago, Chili said:

I will say this. Bulaga was projected to be an elite guard coming out of college and merely a solid tackle.

Instead he ended up being an elite tackle. Could the projection for him being an elite guard still hold true 9 years later.

That was Robert Gallery poisoning people's perception of Iowa players.

Bulaga is a ridiculous natural athlete. He is the best golfer on the team. For a while he was also the best basketball player (I think Davante, Graham and Rollins surpassed him there).