Looking ahead to the Packers' 2025 offensive line

A listener comment I spoke about on the most recent episode of Blue 58 got me thinking abou tth eoffensive line.I mean, to some extent I am always thinking about the Packers’ offensive line, but bear with me.

I don’t know what the Packers need to take their offensive line play up a notch, if that’s possible, but looking to the 2025 offseason, I think it’s safe to say they’ll have questions to answer at three of their five offensive line spots, and possibly four. Let’s run them down.

What do the Packers do with Rasheed Walker?

With respect to a brief, in-season position battle, Rasheed Walker has been the Packers starting tackle since David Bakhtiari went down for the final time last year. Broadly speaking, I think that’s been a surprise to everyone, even Walker. He’s been solid enough, but the real story here isn’t his play. It’s that he’s been the unquestioned starter since Bakhtiari went down, other than his short battle for the job with Yosh Nijman. That was true this year as well, even though the Packers drafted Jordan Morgan this spring. Morgan never challenged Walker; it appears that they didn’t even give him a chance.

Will that remain the case next offseason? That’s a huge question, and it might hinge on what the Packers think they can get done at other positions.

How will the Packers handle their pending vacancy at center?

Skipping over left guard, the next big question the Packers face is at center. Josh Myers is a free agent this spring, and I’m very interested to see how the Packers handle a player they literally cannot stop praising even in light of their ongoing talk about replacing him. They clearly value Myers, a mountainous center who has a great working relationship with Jordan Love. Do they value him enough to bring him back?

If so, what does he stand to get? If not, how will they replace him? The “Zach Tom to center” ship has probably sailed, and Elgton Jenkins is probably more valuable at guard — and for that matter was pretty abysmal in his stint replacing Myers this season.

Myers was a second-round pick, and if the Packers want to draft a ready-made replacement, they’ll probably have to spend a similar pick to get one. Which is the better course of action, then? Re-sign Myers, a known if disappointing quantity, or roll the dice on a draft pick, who could be an upgrade…or could end up worse?

Is Sean Rhyan the future at right guard?

Continuing toward the right, we arrive at right guard, where Sean Rhyan embodies one of the most surprising storylines of the season. Rhyan’s rookie season was a total loss, but his second season involved an interesting in-season timeshare with Jon Runyan Jr. at right guard. Runyan got the most crucial snaps in that arrangement, and I thought that was portentous when it came to Rhyan’s impending position battle with Jordan Morgan, who the Packers seemed set on installing at right guard.

Initially, that seemed to be the right read. Morgan was announced as the Packers’ starter at right guard when the team released its first depth chart, but shortly after a shoulder injury sidelined him for a few weeks. That set up Rhyan as the de facto starter, but he shared snaps with Morgan until Morgan’s shoulder injury recurred.

Since then, though, Rhyan has been solid, taking a step forward from last year. He’s been good enough that I think he’d be the unquestioned starter now, even if Morgan were healthy. 

But that’s the present. What about the future? Rhyan has arguably won the right guard job twice now. Can he do it a third time? 

What is Jordan Morgan?

Finally, we have to go outside the actual lineup for our fourth question. What is Jordan Morgan?

The Packers’ 2024 first-round pick seems like a talented, physically gifted prospect. Questions about his value versus that of Graham Barton, selected one pick after him, can and probably should linger, but for his part Morgan seems to have been pretty solid when healthy. 

But where does he fit into the 2025 offensive line? Does he get a shot at left tackle? Will he have another chance at right guard? If Elgton Jenkins moved to center, would he get a crack at left guard?

Admittedly, this is a nice question to have. “Where do we play the talented, versatile offensive lineman that we like, considering that we have other talented, versatile linemen currently occupying the spots we’d like to play him?” is the sort of conundrum a good number of teams throughout the NFL would love to have. But it’s still a conundrum, and there doesn’t seem to be an easy solution.

That, of course, assumes that Morgan can get and stay healthy, but that’s a topic for another day.