On Tuesday, the Green Bay Packers’ coordinators had an opportunity to speak to the media for the first time since the team’s opening-week loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Obviously, coming out of that game, where the Vikings scored 29-straight points but only had to post one drive of over 28 yards during that run because the offense was coughing up the ball on short fields, the center of the Packers universe right now currently revolves around the offensive line position.
Early on in his press availability,
offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich tried to calm the media storm around the position, stating, “I’m not gonna freak out or overreact or anything like that. This is the first game of a 17-game season.” That makes one of us. I’m very much freaking out!
When Stenavich was asked about how the team could have avoided putting quarterback Jordan Love in such a bad position, he said that the majority of the issue on the line came from “miscommunication upfront. The backs and linemen not on the same page.” Hopefully the team pulls it together for the pass-rush plan this week, but they had multiple weeks to prepare for the Vikings, and they’re staring down a stretch where they’ll play two games in five days, as they have the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday Night Football right after they play the New York Jets on Sunday.
The other big subject that fans had questions about was how former undrafted player Donovan Jennings earned the start at left guard once Aaron Banks (knee tendinitis) was ruled out, over draft picks like Jager Burton, Anthony Belton, John Williams and Travis Glover, who were either on the bench offensively or were healthy scratches during the game. Stenavich stated that “We felt like Donovan was doing a better job in practice.”
Previously, head coach Matt LaFleur said that the team preferred Jennings, who has only gotten extended playing time in one NFL game — six snaps against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 17 last year — in his NFL career, because of his “time on task.” The team generally played Burton at left guard with the starting unit throughout training camp, until the last week of camp, when Burton was cross-trained more as a center (Burton played both positions in college) and Jennings was pushed into the left guard position.
Stenavich also mentioned that the team isn’t ruling out transitioning Belton back to guard, the position he played during the 2025 regular season, to help the team. Belton has spent both of his NFL training camps at the tackle position, as the team has been short on bodies there, and could potentially move to guard full-time during both of his regular seasons. This begs the question: Did the staff not think they would struggle at guard for a second season and potentially need to develop their former second-rounder to play that position, rather than one he ultimately wasn’t needed for during the regular season?
In other contradictory news, Stenavich stated that ideally the team would have liked tight end Tucker Kraft to run the sneak play on fourth-and-one, but that they didn’t want to use him in that scenario, as Kraft was coming off his ACL tear. LaFleur previously said that Kraft’s injury was not a factor in the decision.
When the coaching staff can’t keep their stories straight, it’s hard to know what the truth is.
