Corey Linsley is practically dead. The sooner Green Bay Packers fans accept this, the better. It’s a shame, because Linsley was (deservedly) the All-Pro center of the main NFL team and the nominated Walter Payton of Packers’ Man of the Year in 2020, but the reality of the league and the financial situation of the team in the year 2021 o make a virtual impossibility return.
The Packers, recognizing that this was a strong possibility even before the COVID-19 pandemic put the wage ceiling in disarray, have been getting their home to deal with Linsley’s departure for almost two years. General manager Brian Gutekunst’s efforts to completely reinforce the interior of the Packers offensive line date from the 2019 off-season, showing the intention to give the team the ability to move on when the Linsley contract expires.
That contract, a three-year extension, was one of Ted Thompson’s final gifts for the franchise, along with a new deal for Davante Adams. Both extensions took effect just before week 17 of the 2017 season, just weeks before Thompson left his GM post. Linsley received $ 25.5 million in that deal with $ 8 million upfront in a signing bonus that spanned four years (including 2017) to keep his limit largely palatable throughout the contract.
Three main factors are likely to prevent Linsley from signing a third contract with the Packers. First, he turns 30 this off-season, which informs point two: recent injuries. Although he has only lost three games in the past four years, Linsley has been dealing with persistent problems consistently in recent times. Finally, there are finances, since a top-tier center is expected to receive at least $ 10 million and probably north of $ 11 million per year at fair market value.
Again, the writing is on the wall if you look closely. Here is a chronology of the Packers’ acquisitions within the offensive line.
2019 Free Agency: RG / RT Billy Turner
Although Turner was primarily a tackle in 2020, bouncing back and forth between the right and left sides, he spent most of 2019 as the team’s right-hand guard. The Packers signed a four-year contract with him as part of Gutekunst’s big free agency show and his business, while surprising in its total value, turned out to be a solid $ 7 million a year.
With the team’s right guard game an absolute disaster in 2018, with Justin McCray taking a big step back and veteran Byron Bell not playing any better, the Packers saw Turner as a short-term investment to solidify the guard position and to provide insurance in the event that Bryan Bulaga leaves a free agency, which he did in 2020. Notably, Turner returned to the right guard when Linsley was out for three games this season, although with Wagner now released, the right job it should belong to Turner, as long as he is healthy.
2019 NFL Draft: Elgton Jenkins
With their choice in the second round in 2019, the Packers got an internal striker capable of playing almost any position in the top five. Elgton Jenkins took up the left guard, taking over from Lane Taylor as a rookie, but his flexibility was on display in 2020 when he lined up everywhere but the right guard. Jenkins’ experience as a university center (or at least his primary position in the state of Mississippi) suggests that the Packers may see him as the long-term response at the center, but he started week one on the right track, showing a remarkable versatility that can result in him playing almost anywhere along the line.
At the very least, Jenkins is one of the NFL’s best strikers, regardless of position, and his selection in the second round in 2019 is a sign that the Packers needed an infusion of long-term talent in the countryside.
2019 contract extension: Lucas Patrick
A former non-hired free agent – or rather, a newcomer invited to the minicamp test – Patrick worked his way from modest status to an important full-time title holder last season. But in December 2019, he signed a two-year contract extension for just under $ 3 million, buying one year each from a free, unrestricted agency. That contract came at the end of a season in which he played 14 games, but did not start and only took the field for 137 snaps, although he has almost doubled the snap count in each of his first two seasons.
Still, the Packers saw Patrick at the time as a piece of critical depth throughout the interior and a potential initiator. In fact, he was pushed into the starting lineup almost immediately in 2020, when Taylor suffered a second consecutive injury at the end of the season in the first week, and ended up playing in the three internal places. This two-year bridge contract kept him in Green Bay during Linsley’s last year and probably the first year after his departure, ensuring some continuity. Patrick’s ability to play a pivot, like Jenkins’s, was probably an important consideration here too, since the two would be candidates for Linsley’s succession, with the other likely lining up in one of the guard positions.
2020 NFL Draft: Three Players from the Sixth Round Inner Line
This brings us to the last off-season, when the Packers did little in the free agency. However, what they did with their three draft picks from the sixth round – a compensatory choice, a choice that came from the Titans in a trade and their own sixth – shows a team trying to hit some late lottery tickets.
The choice to use three direct choices on internal attackers went back to Gutekunst’s wide receiver spree in 2018, when he grabbed three players in that position on the third day of that year’s draft. In summoning Jon Runyan, Jr., Simon Stepaniak and Jake Hanson, the team tripled again in the hope of finding a rough diamond and increasing the depth for the future.
In the first year, it seems that they have a definite goalkeeper, as Runyan reinforced his excellent performance in Combine (he was one of the few college tackles to reach the ideal athletic limits of the Packers across the board) with encouraging relief performances in the season. regular games. The team also thought long and hard about Stepaniak to remove him from the list of puppies at the end of the season, although he did not play a game while Hanson worked on the training team throughout the season.
If even one of these three choices turned out to be a reliable initiator, it was a worthwhile bet. Runyan has the best chance based on early returns, and he may well be the holder in the first week of 2021.
If and when Linsley moves on, the Packers will have a solid group of players inside and a clear set of good options for a succession plan. When David Bakhtiari returns in 2021, the line may well look like a combination of the following:
- Bakhtiari, Runyan, Jenkins, Patrick, Turner
- Bakhtiari, Jenkins, Patrick, Runyan, Turner
- Bakhtiari, Runyan, Patrick, Turner, Jenkins
The last option is a bit eccentric, but with Jenkins starting on the right in the first week, while Turner was injured, he is not as crazy as you might think. The Packers could even rehearse Lane Taylor for a cheap deal for some veteran depth and let him and Runyan fight for an initial job – after all, Taylor was the holder of week one on the right guard in 2020.
Taylor’s return may make even more sense with Bakhtiari at first; this could let the Packers roll with a line Turner, Runyan, Patrick, Taylor, Jenkins to start the season and alleviate the perceived need to add veteran depth to the tackle position.