The Green Bay Packers won two games and scored 57 points with Yosh Nijman, Jon Runyan, rookie Josh Myers, rookie Royce Newman and Billy Turner starting both games along the offensive line.
Only Turner came into the two-game stretch with more than two games of starting experience at the NFL level. The rebuilt group in front of Aaron Rodgers survived two demanding battles against two of the best defensive fronts in football despite not having All-Pro David Bakhtiari or Pro Bowler Elgton Jenkins.
It’s an accomplishment worth celebrating. And the opponents here absolutely matter. The San Francisco 49ers and Pittsburgh Steelers might not be NFL elites through four games, but both can wreck games along the front on defense. San Francisco’s Nick Bosa and Arik Armstead rank among the best edge rusher-interior defender combos in football, right up there alongside Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt and Cameron Hayward.
The Packers scored 30 points to beat the 49ers last week and then scored 27 to beat the Steelers on Sunday.
“If you would have told me early in the season that we’d be without two of our best linemen for a couple of games and play those two fronts, I would have been ecstatic with two wins. And here we are, 3-1, beating two fronts without Dave and Elgton,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said.
In the two games, Rodgers dropped back to pass 77 times, per Pro Football Focus. He was under pressure on just 15 of the dropbacks, or 19.4 percent.
Overall, the 49ers and Steelers sacked him only four times. On one, Rodgers was tripped by Watt. On another, he slid down in scramble mode late in the fourth quarter on Sunday. Only two of the sacks – one by Armstead in San Francisco, and a second by Devin Bush on a blitz – were really on the offensive line.
“I’m proud of those guys, they’ve really battled,” Rodgers said Sunday. “They’ve blocked really, really well.”
The Packers did a tremendous job mixing in the quick passing game while also providing help for Nijman on the left side. Rodgers got the ball out of his hands well under 2.5 seconds on average in the two games, and chips and double teams helped the young left tackle against Bosa, Watt and Melvin Ingram.
The group didn’t only just survive in pass protection. The Packers also rushed for 231 total yards in the two games, including 131 on Sunday against the Steelers.
Starting rookies at center and right guard had already created a fairly substantial challenge for the Packers to open the season. Having to play a second-year sixth-round pick with just one career start at left guard and an undrafted free agent with zero career starts at left tackle only added to the challenge, especially against two teams like the 49ers and Steelers.
But offensive line coaches Adam Stenavich and Luke Butkus trusted the development of the young players and then put them in positions to succeed, using Matt LaFleur’s playcalling and Rodgers’ experience to help every step of the way.
Many teams with such inexperience along the offensive line would have wilted in the same situation. The Packers didn’t. What could have been a built-in excuse facing two tough matchups turned into an opportunity for growth, and the Packers’ young offensive line took full advantage.
Good teams find ways to overcome. The Packers are now 3-1 and awaiting the return of two of the best offensive linemen in football.
[listicle id=63795]