You’re going to hear a lot about injuries and numbers on the offensive line for the Green Bay Packers this week. Not only did all eight of the Packers’ game-day active players at the position get in against the New York Jets in Green Bay’s unlikely (considering the context) win on Sunday, but three of those players, Zach Bako-Bewele, Aaron Banks and Donovan Jennings, all left with injuries.
We don’t know the extent of the Banks (toe, was previously dealing with knee tendinitis) or Jennings (hand)
injuries, but head coach Matt LaFleur did say that Bako-Bewele, who was limited in practice coming into this game because of his recovery from a patellar tendon surgery, was going to miss some games in his post-game presser. For what it’s worth, Bako-Bewele left the game in an air cast, which usually means that a player has either a bone injury, a break and/or a dislocation.
Who starts for Green Bay?
Post-Bako-Bewele, the Packers’ preferred offensive line is: Jordan Morgan (left tackle), Banks (left guard), Sean Rhyan (center), Jacob Monk (right guard) and Anthony Belton (right tackle). Obviously, though, Banks (and his replacement, Jennings) and his status are up in the air. If both Banks and Jennings are out, rookie fifth-round pick Jager Burton, who got his first snaps in the regular season in Week 2, would be the next man up at left guard.
How do they account for injuries?
Shoutout to Cheesehead_In_Paradise, who brought up the Packers’ options at the position in The Feed. I was actually going to reply to his post, but my answer was going to be long, so I figured I should just make it into a full post.
Alright, so what happens if Green Bay is incredibly injured up front? First of all, I want to state that we don’t know the situation there, besides ZBB. We’ll learn more on Monday, when the Packers have to release their first injury report of the week (Green Bay plays on Thursday Night Football in Week 3).
With that being said, if only one of Banks/Jennings is out (along with ZBB), the Packers can sort of handle these injuries with their 53-man roster. People don’t want to hear about internal options, but that’s what’s most likely to happen.
Even though the line was so banged up that tight end Tucker Kraft almost had to move to offensive tackle in-game, it needs to be said that the only two healthy scratches (NFL teams can only carry 48 players into game action) from Week 2 for Green Bay were both offensive linemen: tackle/guard/center John Williams and tackle/guard Travis Glover. The Packers like these players enough that they didn’t get rid of them at the cutdown deadline to add other players from around the league (or keep other internal talent). Essentially, the team has “extras” on the offensive line, and really only the offensive line right now.
The Packers have numbers – if one of Banks/Jennings can go
So if the injury situation means that ZBB and one of Banks/Jennings are out, the Packers should be fine (from a numbers perspective) to have a line of: Morgan (LT), Banks/Jennings (LG, as long as one is healthy), Rhyan (C), Monk (RG), Belton (RT), Burton (backup), Williams (backup) and Glover (backup).
Eight healthy offensive linemen are basically par for the course in the NFL. If you want to get really specific about the league’s rules about the 48-man roster, it’s really a 47-man game-day roster (this includes practice squad additions; practice squad additions just mean you have to scratch another 53-man roster member for a game) with an exemption for the 48th roster spot. The way it’s worded in the NFL’s rules, you only get that 48th player if that player is an offensive lineman.
Because of that rule, it’s logical to go into games with either six offensive linemen (on a 47-man gameday roster) or eight offensive linemen (on a 48-man gameday roster). There’s no reason to just keep seven players at the position, since it would mean that a team would be passing up a free exemption for a 48th man/8th offensive lineman.
As long as one of Bank or Jennings can go, the Packers’ 53-man roster holds up, because they were sort of “oversigned” at the position already.
If Bako-Bewele, Banks and Jennings can’t go, they need to make a move
Where the situation gets tricky is if all three of Bako-Bewele, Banks and Jennings aren’t able to play on the quick turnaround on Thursday. If that’s the case, the roster is at just seven healthy offensive linemen, including the two players who were scratched today. That’s firmly in the no-no zone, because of the NFL’s eighth offensive lineman exemption on game days (to bring a 47-man roster to 48).
Personally, I think the Packers like a couple of their internal options on the practice squad, and it would take five total injuries for that new “eighth” lineman to get on the grass (including ZBB, Banks and Jennings). It’s unlikely that we’ll ever see that player on anything other than special teams on field goal protection.
With that being said, here are the internal options for Green Bay:
- Dalton Cooper
- Josh Gesky
- Dillon Wade
- Cordell Volson
Cooper is a second-year player who the Packers have had their eyes on for a while, as they brought him on a pre-draft visit but were unable to sign him in 2025 as a post-draft free agent (likely because the Kansas City Chiefs were willing to give him $259,000 in guarantees on his UDFA deal). When Cooper was cut from the Chiefs last August at the cutdown deadline, Green Bay quickly signed Cooper to the practice squad, where he remained for the entire 2025 season.
Both Gesky and Wade were big free agent signings for the Packers this draft class. Both went undrafted, despite getting some draft buzz, and received $215,000 in guarantees to sign as UDFAs. For perspective, that was only bested by edge defender Nyjalik Kelly’s $262,500 in guarantees (a franchise record for a UDFA). $215,000 in guarantees is also how much Green Bay paid receiver J. Michael Sturdivant, who made the Packers’ 53-man roster. For perspective, defensive tackle Nazir Stackhouse got $165,000 in guarantees last year, the most of any Green Bay UDFA in 2025, and only two other Packers got more than $45,000 in guarantees (linebacker Jamon Johnson and Johnathan Baldwin — who got $115,000 guaranteed).
Usually, the guarantees tell us how interested the Packers are in on UDFAs. Stackhouse made the team in 2025, but was waived this year and claimed by the Tennessee Titans at the cutdown deadline. He probably would have been on Green Bay’s practice squad, had he passed through waivers. Johnson and Baldwin both were called up for games in 2025, but Johnson was waived with an injury designation this offseason and Baldwin, who at the time was working in as the team’s number two option in the slot in camp, suffered a season-ending knee injury this summer.
For added perspective, Kelly, Sturdivant, Gesky and Wade are the only UDFAs from Green Bay’s initial 2026 class who remain on the roster right now. They were paid an average of $226,875 in guaranteed money when they signed. The other six UDFAs who were initially signed by the Packers are not even on the practice squad anymore, and they averaged guarantees of $37,500.
In short, the Packers have three young UDFAs who got paid a lot of guaranteed money (for UDFAs), and they are probably the best bets to be called up in case of three linemen being out against the Falcons, especially since it’s a short week.
The other internal option is Volson, who was signed to the practice squad last week after failing to make the Tennessee Titans’ roster after signing a one-year, $3.2 million contract this offseason that included $2 million in guarantees. He obviously has some pedigree, as he was drafted in the fourth round in 2022 and has started 48 games, but he earned a 29.1 grade from Pro Football Focus in true pass-protection snaps in 2024 with the Cincinnati Bengals (Volson missed the entire 2025 regular season with a shoulder injury that required surgery).
It’s worth mentioning here that the Packers have four offensive linemen. The team only has even two players at a single position for three other positions: running back (where Pierre Strong Jr. is injured, spurring the signing of Damon Bankston), receiver (where numbers usually demand two or three players at the position on the practice squad) and edge defender (because special teamer Arron Mosby joins Kelly).
Green Bay has 14 total offensive linemen right now, not because they’re just “over-signed” on the 53-man roster, but because they’re also “over-signed” on the practice squad.
If push comes to shove, I think they bring up one of those practice squadders for an extra number, if that’s even needed.
The difference between a 53-man signing and a practice squad call-up
As Cheesehead_In_Paraside mentioned, former Packer Darian Kinnard (who was Green Bay’s OL11 in the Week 3 preseason game) is on the New York Giants’ practice squad.
The issue here is that it’s easier to pick up a player who was waived off a 53-man roster than to poach a player off a practice squad. That might seem wrong, because one player was just on a 53 while the other was sitting on the sub-roster, but that’s how it works because of a rule the NFL has. If you pick up a player off waivers, you’re not obligated to keep him on your 53-man roster for any length of time. If you poach a player off a practice squad, you must pay him and have that player hold a roster spot on the 53-man roster for a minimum of three weeks.
That’s one reason why the Packers didn’t have tackle Brant Banks poached from their practice squad last year, but when Green Bay called Banks up to the 53-man roster and then waived him after Week 4, the Tennessee Titans picked him up off waivers. Because of that three-week-guaranteed rule, Tennessee wasn’t interested in Banks as a practice squad poach, but they were interested in trying him out as a waiver claim (and waived him eight days later, instead of being forced to keep him for three weeks).
If Jennings and Banks have short-term injuries, there’s really not a need for the Packers to sign a multi-week guy from someone else’s practice squad, as the players on practice squads were already subject to waivers (either at the cutdown deadline or after the cutdown deadline), and they come with a mandatory count on the roster for three weeks.
At the same time, calling up a Cooper, Gesky, Wade or Volson as a short-term option on the 53-man roster, rather than as a practice squad elevation (teams are allowed to call up as many as two practice squad players per week to the game-day roster, but individual players are limited to three elevations per season) would put them in a Banks-like situation. Other clubs might not be interested in Cooper, Gesky, Wade or Volson as practice squad poaches because of the three-week requirement on the 53-man roster, but they might be interested in those players if they’re brought up to the Packers’ 53-man roster for a week and then waived as Green Bay tries to get them back to their practice squad.
It’s the difference between kicking the tires on a player for an undetermined amount of time and making a three-week commitment on the 53-man roster during the season. That’s a big deal!
Because a short-term call-up to the 53-man roster comes with the risk of never getting that player back to the practice squad (Banks was quickly waived by the Titans, but that’s not something they can count on or control), I wouldn’t be shocked if Green Bay doesn’t address the offensive line situation on the 53-man roster at all, even if Bako-Bewele, Banks and Jennings all can’t go against Atlanta, because a practice squad elevation to bring one of Cooper, Gesky, Wade or Volson up to the game-day roster doesn’t come with the risk of signing those players for a week: subjecting that player to waivers, rather than forcing teams to make a three-week commitment to poach a practice squadder.
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It’s weird, and unless you’ve paid attention to practice squad rules, you probably had no idea about this — but there are some pretty big protections that teams have for practice squad players. I’m not sure that the Packers will 1) even need an extra number against the Falcons or 2) feel like they need to remove those practice squad protections off a player, even in a worst-case situation where they only have seven healthy offensive linemen on the 53-man roster — because elevating a practice squadder is a workaround for this exact scenario.
For what it’s worth, the Packers didn’t even use a practice squad elevation this week (which is why there were only two healthy scratches on the team), so it’s not like they’re so banged up elsewhere that they need numbers beyond their 53-man roster (outside of potentially the offensive line, now).
Obviously, there’s some debate about the talent of Green Bay’s line, but from a pure roster count perspective, they should be able to handle these injuries with internal options.
The bigger question to me is: What do the Packers do with 53-man roster spots, if they don’t need them on the line, knowing that ZBB and receiver Jayden Reed are probably going to go on the injured reserve? Do they just roll with a 51-man roster and use practice squad elevations to keep it together over Week 3 and Week 4, before they’re allowed to call up guys like edge defender Micah Parsons, tight end Luke Musgrave, receiver Savion Williams or edge defender Collin Oliver from the injured reserve/physically unable to perform list? I could see that as a route for Green Bay.
