I want to highlight some offensive line prospects who have a good chance of being picked by the Green Bay Packers in the 2026 NFL Draft, but we first have to establish what the team wants to do at the position.
If you hadn’t noticed at this point, the Packers want to run the ball inside. They haven’t done it well, in part because of the status of the offensive line, but post-Aaron Jones, head coach and play-caller Matt LaFleur has really pivoted from the outside zone run scheme that the Shanahan-McVay tree used to run and leaned into the inside zone/duo/gap scheme world. That is all just shorthand for this: They want to live and die off of their offensive line’s ability to consistently knock defensive linemen off the ball in the ground game.
With changes in the offense’s objectives, there have been changes to the types of bodies that the Packers are looking for, too. In the backfield, it’s pretty much 220-pound backs across the board. Up front, they’ve leaned out of the athletic 300-pounders that they used to find on Day 3 of the draft and now seem to want 320-pounders, outside of the center position.
Packers’ Recent Offensive Line Additions (Non-Center)
- Anthony Belton: 336 pounds at the combine
- Darian Kinnard: 328
- Aaron Banks: 325
- John Williams: 322
- Travis Glover: 317
- Jordan Morgan: 311
Post-Jones, these have been the biggest additions that the team has made on the offensive line, outside of center, listed by weight. Belton, Williams, Glover and Morgan were drafted, while Kinnard was traded for and Banks was signed to a mega deal in free agency. Center is a different world, even for the increasingly heavy Packers, because they are the biggest beneficiaries of two-on-one or combination blocks (which start as two-on-ones at the point of attack). Generally, NFL teams are lighter at center than at guard and tackle. Green Bay isn’t unique here.
Among these recent Packers additions, they average north of 320 pounds, with the only major exception being Morgan. Morgan probably could have played guard well for the early LaFleur system, which relied more on athleticism in space. In the current inside-run-heavy scheme, he looks MUCH better at tackle than he does at guard. We all saw the results in 2024 and 2025. This is just the new reality in Green Bay, and it’s a pretty good justification for wanting to get bigger, if the offense is going to be played this way.
Packers Pre-Draft Visitors – Some Extra Data Points
In 2022, the Green Bay Packers’ ideology changed in how they use pre-draft visitors. Before then, the Packers spent the majority of their allotted 30 pre-draft visits on undrafted rookie recruiting trips. After Covid, when teams were allowed to bring players back into buildings, they’ve leaned more into bringing in prospects they plan to prioritize on draft weekend (which sort of tips their hand) and injury/off-field concern players.
For example, here are all of the drafted offensive linemen who Green Bay has brought in over the last four draft classes, listed by eight:
- Giovanni Manu: 352 pounds
- Armarius Mims: 340
- Anthony Belton: 336
- Darnell Wright: 333
- Atonio Mafi: 329
- Darian Kinnard: 328
- Tyler Smith: 327
- Rasheed Walker: 324
- Kiran Amegadjie: 323
- John Williams: 322
- Tyler Guyton: 322
- Josh Simmons: 317 (injury)
- Abraham Lucas: 315
- Ed Ingram: 312 (off-field)
- Zak Zinter: 309 (injury)
Of the 12 “clean” (non-injury/off-field) evaluations, the Packers have added a third of them. This is fairly consistent across the board for Green Bay, not just at the offensive line position. That’s pretty significant when there are 32 other teams out there trying to add talent. They tell the world who they want, as they must now feel that getting that extra look at a player in their facility is worth the downside that comes with announcing who they are interested in.
If you’re wondering what the concerns with Simmons, Zinter and Engram were, Simmons was coming off a season-ending patellar tendon tear, Zinter broke his tibia and fibula in the regular-season finale of his senior season and Engram was arrested on two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a minor, which was eventually dropped. The Packers frequently bring in players for visits who have off-field issues or injury concerns. They almost never actually draft them.
Among the 12 “clean” offensive linemen who were brought in, their average weight came in at 329 pounds, another sign that Green Bay wants to get huge up front, which makes sense considering their chosen playing style post-Jones.
At this point, I really do wonder if LaFleur ever really wanted to have an outside zone-based run game, or if he just happened to have Jones, so he worked around the back’s strengths and weaknesses. Remember, LaFleur’s one year of play-calling before Green Bay was with the Tennessee Titans, where his running back was Derrick Henry, who LaFleur turned into a full-time starter for the first time during the 247-pounder’s third year in the league. They pounded the rock inside, not outside.
The running back selections that the team has made since LaFleur been with the Packers have been A.J. Dillon (247 pounds at his combine), Kylin Hill (214), Lew Nichols (220) and MarShawn Lloyd (220). The backs currently on the roster are Josh Jacobs (220), Lloyd, Chris Brooks (219), Emanuel Wilson (226), Pierre Strong Jr. (207) and Damien Martinez (217).
Sincerely, maybe LaFleur always wanted to be an inside run guy, but that wasn’t viable when Jones, who looked like he played under his combine weight of 208 pounds, was his lead back.
2026 NFL Draft Linemen Who Crack 320 pounds
So, if they really want to add 320-plus-pounders (I stress again that this is probably not the case at center), then who are those players in this class? Well, that’s what I’m here to break down today.
The scouting combine just released its list of accepted invites, so we know for certain who the league is generally interested in (teams give their input on this). Of the 57 invited offensive linemen, 22 of them have either been verified to have a weight of 320 pounds at all-star games or are estimated to be 320-pounders or heavier by NFL Draft Scout, which generally gets player estimations from spring measurements.
Here are those 22 players, along with their rankings from the consensus draft board:
- #4: Francis Mauigoa, Miami (335 pounds – estimated)
- #17: Vega Ioane, Penn State (328 – estimated)
- #19: Kadyn Proctor, Alabama (366 – estimated)
- #44: Max Iheanachor, Arizona State (325 – verified Senior Bowl)
- #47: Gennings Dunker, Iowa (320 – verified Senior Bowl)
- #63: Caleb Tiernan, Northwestern (325 – estimated)
- #111: Dametrious Crownover, Texas A&M (331 – verified Senior Bowl)
- #141: J.C. Davis, Illinois (335 – verified Senior Bowl)
- #164: Febechi Nwaiwu, Oklahoma (324 – verified Shrine Bowl)
- #169: Jaeden Roberts, Alabama (335 – verified Shrine Bowl)
- #180: Markel Bell, Miami (356 – estimated)
- #189: Jeremiah Wright, Auburn (340 – verified Senior Bowl)
- #192: DJ Campbell, Texas (321 – verified Shrine Bowl)
- #203: Jalen Farmer, Kentucky (322 – verified Senior Bowl)
- #218: Anez Cooper, Miami (345 – estimated)
- #283: Micah Morris, Georgia (346 – verified Senior Bowl)
- #288: Alex Harkey, Oregon (327 – estimated)
- #318: Garrett DiGiorgio, UCLA (321 – verified Shrine Bowl)
- #320: Joshua Braun, Kentucky (333 – verified Shrine Bowl)
- #371: Alan Herron, Maryland (321 – verified Senior Bowl)
- #382: Dillon Wade, Auburn (322 – verified Shrine Bowl)
- #413: Diego Pounds, Mississippi (332 – verified Shrine Bowl)
If you want a full look at the weights of this offensive line class, below is a spreadsheet with all of them listed. I highlighted the linemen who hit 320 pounds in green, those who hit at least 315 pounds in yellow (it’s close enough) and those who come in under 315 pounds in red.
You’ll notice a lot of the top players with red rows are centers, like Connor Lew, Brian Parker II, Sam Hecht, Jake Slaughter, Logan Jones and Parker Brailsford. Parker was a college tackle but is expected to move to center at the next level.
Of the 45 expected draft choices, 15 of them come in at 320-plus-pounds. 7 of the 12 expected undrafted free agents at the combine are of that weight, though, a sign that some lower-tier invites might just be getting looks because of their size.
If you want to know which positions these players played at the college level, below is a career-long snap count table for each of the five positions for all 22 of the 320-pounders who will be at the combine.
None of these players has been primarily a center, though Oklahoma’s Febechi Nwaiwu spent extended time at the position at the Shrine Bowl and reportedly did well down there. He even won the game’s Pat Tillman Award.
Again, I don’t think that the lack of centers here is a big deal, since center seems to be treated differently from tackle and guard league-wide, even among teams that like to run the ball inside. There are also a couple of players who weigh just short of 320 pounds at the position, like potential guard convert Keylan Rutledge of Georgia Tech (316 pounds). For what it’s worth, there are also scouts in the league who believe that UCLA’s Garrett DiGiorgio’s best position in the NFL will be center, despite him primarily playing tackle in college.
I’m less sold that the Packers’ center answer for 2026 will come from this list of 320-pounders, but I do think that if the team adds depth at the tackle and/or guard positions this draft, the player is highly likely to come from the list of the 15 draftable big boys.
