Packers 2016 Recap: C Corey Linsley

2016 Stats

• 9 games played
• Pro Football Focus: 83.7/100 (12th out of 38 qualified centers)

Expectations going into the season: Low
Expectations were: Met

Analysis: Linsley again benefits from a Tretter injury

As consistent as he’s been since his rookie year, it’s easy to forget that Corey Linsley was always intended to be Plan B at center.

But less than two weeks before the Packers’ date with the defending champion Seattle Seahawks to open the 2014 season, starting center JC Tretter was injured. A bad knee would force him out of the lineup for multiple weeks, and suddenly Linsley, the rookie fifth round pick, found himself in the limelight.

Two years later, the situation had flipped. Linsley, battling an offseason injury, found himself on the Physically Unable to Perform list to start the season.

Tretter finally opened a season as the starting center, and had he kept up his level of play, it’s hard to imagine that Linsley would have gotten his job back.

But two months into the season, Tretter again was injured and Linsley jumped right into the starting lineup. He never gave the job back and played well enough that the Packers never seemed to seriously consider matching Tretter’s offer from Cleveland as free agency opened.

Linsley’s consistency in the middle of the Packers’ offensive line is easy to overlook, but it shouldn’t be.

He makes players around him better, Aaron Rodgers trusts him, and he’s been nothing short of dependable in his time in Green Bay so far.