More Banjo - Packers vs Eagles

[Joemailman]

Morgan is the LT with quick feet, and that cement truck they drafted in the RT.

Elgton is gonna get cut or restructured.

Banks is gonna get cut.

There's a lot of room for improvement on the line for sure.

Elgton will be gone. They save 20 million on the cap by cutting him. I don't think they'll give up on Banks yet. Rhyan and Rasheed Walker will be FA's. Rhyan might get an extension if he shows these next 8 weeks he can handle C. Belton will likely be in there somewhere. So far he's played mostly RT, but he might be the road grader they desire at RG. Travis Glover, on IR this year, will challenge for a spot next year.

[Vincenzo]

Packers D held Saquon Barkley to 60 yards. Stunning.

"The Packers have allowed just 39 total points and 780 total yards in their 3 losses this season.
They're the first NFL team to allow fewer than 40 points and fewer than 800 yards over their first 3 losses of the season since the Lions in 1940."

No one can blame our 2025 defense.

[Joemailman]

PFF Best/Worst Grades

Top 5 offense

RT Zach Tom: 72.0
LT Rasheed Walker: 71.2
WR Dontayvion Wicks: 69.4
QB Jordan Love: 68.4
WR Christian Watson: 67.3

Tom earned the offensive line's highest run blocking grade but allowed four hurries over 41 pass-blocking snaps. Walker gave up only two hurries and earned a 86.7 pass-blocking grade. Wicks had a drop, but he also caught four passes, and all four gained first downs. Two of his four catches were considered contested. Love was under pressure on 20 of his dropbacks, and he had one big time throw and one turnover worthy play. Watson caught two passes for 45 yards and had another explosive play negated by penalty.

Top 5 defense

CB Carrington Valentine: 79.4
S Xavier McKinney: 67.5
CB Javon Bullard: 67.0
DE Micah Parsons: 64.5
DE Kingsley Enagbare: 59.7

Valentine was targeted five times but gave up just one catch for seven yards. He also broke up a pass but did have a crucial missed tackle against Saquon Barkley on a 41-yard catch. McKinney was solid against the run and made seven tackles without a miss. Bullard made two stops and gave up just one catch for six yards in coverage. Parsons had a team-high seven pressures -- all were hurries. His pass-rushing grade was 78.4. Enagbare had one pressure and two run stops, but he also missed two tackles.

Bottom 5 offense

LG Aaron Banks: 43.2
TE John FitzPatrick: 48.1
RG Jordan Morgan: 51.7
WR Malik Heath: 52.3
WR Romeo Doubs: 53.3

Banks earned a poor grade as a run blocker (49.1) and allowed a team-high six pressures, including two quarterback hits. FitzPatrick struggled as a run blocker (11 snaps) and wasn't targeted as a receiver. Morgan allowed four pressures and was poor as a run blocker. Heath was on the field for 15 passing plays but did not have a target. Doubs ran 23 routes but caught just one pass on four targets for five yards. He was 0-for-3 on contested catches.

Bottom 5 defense

DL Devonte Wyatt: 33.6
DE Rashan Gary: 45.5
LB Isaiah McDuffie: 47.4
LB Edgerrin Cooper: 47.9
S Evan Williams: 52.8

Wyatt had three stops and a pressure, but he earned a very poor run defense grade of 40.6 over 25 run-defending snaps. Gary had only two hurries as a pass-rusher. McDuffie made five tackles but earned a poor run defense grade. Cooper missed a tackle and earned a poor coverage grade (36.0) after giving up three catches for 29 yards. Williams made four stops, but he committed a pass interference penalty and gave up a 36-yard passing touchdown to Devonta Smith.

Special teams (70.9 grade)

Ty'Ron Hopper, Chris Brooks, Evan Williams and Kristian Welch all had tackles covering kicks and punts, while Isaiah McDuffie led the team in snaps (18) and special teams grade (77.1) after producing two assisted tackles. Long snapper Matt Orzech missed two tackles. Brandon McManus made an extra point and missed badly from 64 yards out as time expired. Daniel Whelan had five punts but averaged only 33.6 net yards, a season low, and 4.25 seconds of hangtime, also a season low. He had two punts returned and two touchbacks. Savion Williams returned a kick for 33 yards, his third-longest return of the year. The Packers did not have a special teams penalty. This was the third-highest special teams grade of the season for the Packers.

Quarterback play

Jordan Love: 68.4

Monday night was Love's least productive game from clean pockets of the 2025 season. He completed 12 of 20 passes for only 96 yards when kept clean over 22 dropbacks. He was under pressure on 20 of 42 dropbacks, or 47.6 percent. Love took three sacks, scrambled three times and lost a fumble. On passes over 10 yards in the air, Love completed only 5 of 12 passes for 93 yards. Off play action fakes, Love completed 4 of 5 passes for 48 yards. Love had one big-time throw and one turnover worthy play.

Stat to know

The Packers had two drops, including a crucial drop from Bo Melton on fourth down, and the pass-catchers managed to catch only 4 of 11 contested targets. Also, in the first game without Tucker Kraft, the Packers managed only 77 yards after the catch, and 38 came from Josh Jacobs on checkdowns.

[bobblehead]

Morgan is the LT with quick feet, and that cement truck they drafted in the RT.

I'm terrified they are ruining him. Right now he is relearning a lot of what he embedded over his college career. He has been primarily RG since joining the team and its not a good fit. Now next year if they suddenly say "oops, go back to what we forced you to unlearn for 3 years" it could be a catastrophe.

[pbmax]

Wicks had two balls he could have caught, one of them a no-brainer, and dropped them both. He didn't have as bad of a game as Bo Melton (2 drops, 1 penalty wiping out a big gain), but Wicks plus/minus was just about zero.

[Joemailman]

I'm terrified they are ruining him. Right now he is relearning a lot of what he embedded over his college career. He has been primarily RG since joining the team and its not a good fit. Now next year if they suddenly say "oops, go back to what we forced you to unlearn for 3 years" it could be a catastrophe.

During training camp and preseason games, I thought he adjusted quite well when moved to LT. I don't think he'll forget how to move his feet as a T has to.

[Joemailman]

[Joemailman]

Matt Schneidman
@mattschneidman

Packers put Elgton Jenkins on IR and sign Kristian Welch to the 53.

[Vincenzo]

Haha. I get it.

[Fritz]

Matt Schneidman
@mattschneidman

Packers put Elgton Jenkins on IR and sign Kristian Welch to the 53.

To me, again, this game showed that the offensive line is the biggest problem on this team. It's the starting point for Love's poor play, for the lack of run game, for the missed wide receivers, for everything but the drops.

So how do you fix that? Guter has signed Banks to a massive contract, and LeFleur has cross-trained Morgan at LT and Right guard, and Belton at right tackle and (again) right guard (if I am remembering correctly). Sean Rhyan has been at right guard and center. The one guy you could've moved to left guard - Jenkins - is now on IR.

So it would seem they're stuck with Banks at LG, unless someone's been cross-trained there that I don't know of.

So how do you go forward?

Obviously, Rasheed Walker is your left tackle, and you seem stuck with Banks at LG. Rhyan will now be the center, and Jacob Monk will be active on game days as the backup center and (right?) guard. But I would, depending on how Belton has developed, start him at right guard and bench Morgan. That guy gets pushed backward more than a nerd in a 90's movie. He's next year's left tackle, not this year's right guard. He's been awful. Zach Tom has not been great, either, especially in pass pro, but he's the best they've got there.

So swap out Belton at right guard for Morgan, and see what you've got there. If they continue to suck, is there someone who can play left guard? God. Rhyan? And move Tom to center, or play Monk at center? Banks has been god awful.

This team isn't going anywhere until The Flower fixes this offensive line mess. Banks seems a terrible signing - that's on Guter - but Tom has gone backward, Jenkins never gelled as a center, and Morgan is most certainly not a guard, and the last three I listed there are on The Flower for having an offensive line coach who's not getting the job done. Cripes,Carolina had replacements all over the line of scrimmage last week and still got it done.

On another note, Bo Melton's fourth down drop was huge - such an elemental mistake, letting the ball come into (and bounce off of) his chest. I don't excuse him because he's been playing corner. Guy's been a wide receiver for most all of his career, and that was a very very catchable ball.

And what of The Flower calling a run play that the other team absolutely knows is coming, and having nothing to audible to, as has been suggested by Jacobs? And how about not having guys even lined up correctly? That's coaching.

This is the highest level of heat LeFleur has faced since he started here. Rightfully so.

But Guter needs to be under the microscope, too. His Banks and Hobbs signings have stuck this team for a while, and both players have sucked.

[Joemailman]

Pretty good discussion with Nagler and Mosqueda about the ailing offense. https://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/how-ca...he-offense-249

[texaspackerbacker]

Lame as Rhyan is, the inside running game seemed to improve when he played Center. Or maybe the D was just dropping back and not playing the run as tough. It's a damn shame we can't run the ball like we did last year, and it's a damn shame LaFleur goes run first so much with a lame-assed O Line.

Also, with our O Line that bad, pressure always in Love's face, why didn't they have him roll out instead of constantly dropping straight back?

[Fosco33]

I didn’t watch the 1st half. But my unfounded fear is that the packers injuries are forcing them into vanilla plays where our opponents just make the correct calls and execute. MLF doesn’t seem to have a really different scheme or change much mid game. He’s as stubborn as AArod.

4th down shotgun draw.

Love looking less accurate on deep balls.

4th/5th+ string WRs dropping easy catches.

Not looking great

[Fritz]

Pretty good discussion with Nagler and Mosqueda about the ailing offense. https://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/how-ca...he-offense-249

I do not recommend watching this video if you're suffering from depression. Holy hell. That's about as dark an outlook as one could imagine regarding the Packers. Very eye opening and interesting.

Mosqueda seems to be really harping on LeFleur saying the run game has been "effective." Mosqueda basically says everyone is going to play the Fangio two-shell and since the Packers can't run the ball at all and with Kraft gone have no YAC masters, the short passing game is, well, really short. He thinks the worst thing that could happen would be for LeFleur to trot out the same run-heavy game plan against the Giants - and have it work. Because that would reinforce, for Matty The Flower, that what he's been doing is just fine. Except that the Giants have one of the worst defenses in the league, period, especially against the run.

Mosqueda also points out that a whole bunch of FA's-to-be will be walking after the season because Guter has maxed out the sal cap pretty much already, so there's no help coming any time soon, especially with possibly four offensive linemen leaving after the season (Walker, Rhyan, Kinnard, Jenkins), possibly Quay Walker and/or Devonte Wyatt, and Doubs, probably. And you've only got six picks in the next draft. So - this year is the best window of opportunity, and right now that's a glum thought, as badly as this offense is stuck.

Why has this offensive line failed so badly, I wonder? Conmpletely mis-evaluated Banks? Didn't understand that Jenkins might not smoothly make the move to center? Judged incorrectly that Morgan could play guard, but Belton could not?

[pbmax]

1. Shotgun run on fourth. Its a tempo call but it caught no one unaware. It could have been called by Love or LaFleur. They've been doing it for a while but got caught going to the well one too many times.

2. The Packers love of playing a guy out of position to maximize flexibility and maintain some margin of safety in game day actives PLUS the love of left tackles as the target in the draft has left them high and dry. They are bereft of steady veterans (only Tom qualifies) and have a bunch of mix and match problems in the interior. No one is settled or comfortable in the new positions. Rhyan doesn't seem good enough at RG to count as a steady veteran. All the offseason questions plus the questions from last year have gone unanswered.

The one bright spot is that Rhyan wasn't a catastrophe at center. The hope or copium is that I THINK Belton can play. If he has a natural position he should start. But even that is fraught; can Tom steady Right Guard? can Belton be better than Morgan at RG?

This is a puzzle and we don't have the lid, we are missing some edge pieces and the puzzle is mostly a dark green landscape at night.