The Packers rolled out a mild surprise on the offensive line Sunday, starting 2024 first round pick Jordan Morgan at right guard, a position he’s played sparingly this season.
Morgan made his NFL debut
working at right guard, but we haven’t seen him much there this season. Through the first five games of the year, Morgan has played primarily left guard and right tackle, although he did play 15 snaps at right guard in Week 1. In the preseason, Morgan played left tackle and left guard exclusively. But there he was on Sunday, holding down the fort at right guard as the Packers carved out their best rushing game of the year.
But the what (that Morgan played right guard) is less interesting here than the why. Why make the switch now? Why right guard? Why move Sean Rhyan, who’s been doing a decent enough job, out of the starting lineup?
Matt LaFleur answered a few questions about Morgan’s sudden installment at right guard after Sunday’s game, but his answers require quite a bit of parsing. When asked broadly why Morgan got the nod this week, LaFleur alluded to the idea that a competition between Morgan and Rhyan might just be starting.
“It’s going to be a competitive situation from here on out, and that’s true with every position,” he said. “I know there’s some positions where you know who’s going to be the guy that’s playing but those guys have played a lot of ball, Sean Rhyan’s played a lot of football for us, and he’s been available each and every week. So, we have confidence in all of those guys to go out and get the job done.”
The back half of that quote is total word salad, but the initial reaction is interesting. If right guard is going to be a competitive situation, you can’t help but wonder exactly how competitive it’s going to be. We’ve seen in-season competitions of a sort before. Rasheed Walker and Yosh Nijman rotated at left tackle during the 2023 season before Walker ultimately emerged victorious. Sean Rhyan and Jon Runyan did the same at right guard later in 2023, and Rhyan and Morgan rotated at right guard early last season before a shoulder injury ended Morgan’s rookie year. Is that what’s going to happen here?
It’s certainly possible, and if it’s going to happen, right guard is really the only place where it makes sense at this point in the year. Aaron Banks, Elgton Jenkins, and Zach Tom aren’t going anywhere, and Rasheed Walker seems to have pretty definitively staked his claim at left tackle. If the Packers want to get their 2024 first round pick on the field, right guard is the only place it seems like there’s any chance of that happening right now.
So why now? As a follow up to his previous quote, LaFleur said it had something to do with the fact that so much of the offensive line was banged up this week.
“J-Mo has moved so much throughout his time here. I didn’t feel comfortable going into the game doing musical chairs up front throughout the whole week of practice,” he said. “I think in order for a guy to go out there and play their best, they’ve got to get the reps at that position. So, made a decision and it was truly up in the air with some of those guys. We didn’t know if they’re going to be able to go. So, it was going to be somebody else at that position, like [Darian] Kinnard at right tackle if need be, and we went with the decision to play J-Mo at right guard.”
LaFleur certainly had a lot going on with the offensive line this week. Of the Packers’ top seven offensive linemen, one (Anthony Belton) was ruled out after putting up three straight DNPs in practice this week, and three more (Walker, Banks, and Tom) were questionable with various maladies. LaFleur seems to be saying that rather than have Morgan prep for one or more of those positions (some of which he’s played already this year), they preferred he’d just focus on right guard and they’d solve those other positions with other players, if they had to.
LaFleur has previously expressed concern about Morgan being “spread too thin” in his second year, and these quotes seem to echo that. One of Morgan’s worst games as a pro came in Week 3, when he shuffled between two different offensive line spots in a single game. The Browns’ excellent defensive front certainly had something to do with Morgan’s performance, but it’s hard to think his constant movement didn’t play a role, either.
So in light of that, it seems the Packers came out of the bye with a focus on getting their second-year lineman on the field. Even though there was uncertainty elsewhere on the offensive line, the Packers elected to go with Morgan at right guard, opening the door for what could be another in-season competition. On top of everything else going on with the Packers right now, it looks like this is going to be another storyline to watch.
