definitely going to be in the mix to compete for playing time this year<\/a>\u201d \u2014 it could be Belton vs. Burton for the right guard job in camp.<\/p>\n\u201cTo have a starting lineup on paper is great, but each and every one of those guys that are on that first line know that it\u2019s about competition,\u201d offensive line coach Luke Butkus said during organized team activity practices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re only going to get as good as the guys behind them are pushing them, so to have everybody in our room right now competing, that\u2019s what we\u2019re looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n
That said, Morgan is clearly the left tackle after the offseason free-agent departure of previous starter Rasheed Walker; Banks has gotten $43 million in guaranteed money in the last 15 months from the team after coming over from the San Francisco 49ers; Rhyan just re-upped with the Packers on a three-year deal after shifting to center midway through last season; and Tom, who is coming back from a partially torn patellar tendon, has not yet been cleared to practice fully, is the unit\u2019s best player and is unquestioned starter at right tackle when healthy.<\/p>\n
That leaves right guard, where Belton started seven games (including the season-ending playoff loss to the Chicago Bears) as a rookie second-round pick last year \u2014 along with one start at right tackle when Tom was sidelined for a Week 2 win over Washington.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, he was a tackle, and we were [planning on] just having him play swing tackle and focus on that,\u201d offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich explained. \u201cAnd then all of a sudden, we lost a bunch of guys. It’s like, \u2018Hey, bud, you\u2019ve got to go into play guard.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cSo credit to him for going out there and doing it and playing pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n
To be clear, the self-aware 6-foot-6, 336-pound Belton in no way acted this offseason as if he had the right to be complacent. Instead, while the experience of 488 regular-season and 71 playoff snaps was undeniably valuable, he also knows those snaps left lots of room for improvement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot that comes with it when you transition for college to here,\u201d Belton confessed. \u201cYou\u2019ve just got to be able to adjust and retain information as best you can.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, there\u2019s a difference between playing well for a rookie and playing well, period.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust being able to play as a rookie, I learned a lot. I learned a lot about the process, preparation, and just what comes with it,\u201d Belton said. \u201cI was able to get acclimated, so now I know what to expect going into this year, know what I need to work on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a lot of ups and downs that I had, but now I feel like I\u2019m in a position where I can think less and do more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether Burton can prove to be a better option despite having none of that NFL experience remains to be seen, but with 47 career college starts at Kentucky \u2014 23 at left guard, 15 at center and nine at right guard \u2014 the 6-foot-4, 312-pound Burton is, as his head coach put it, in the mix.<\/p>\n
\u201cJager has a lot of really good qualities that you’re looking for in an offensive lineman in the NFL,\u201d Stenavich said. \u201cI’ll just leave it at that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked what his first-team work meant to him, Burton replied, \u201cIt\u2019s an honor just to be in the position to be able to do that. It\u2019s really cool hearing the differences of the level of communication when you get with guys who have played together for a while now and know how each other operate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bCOPYRIGHT 2026 BY CHANNEL 3000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a roster that is virtually devoid of training-camp battles for starting jobs, an impressive offseason by a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":941559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[3504,15905,651,7,41,345,2514,2513,109932,598,18606,3031,122,6,428,3993,7727,9161],"class_list":["post-941558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-green-bay-packers","tag-aaron-banks","tag-adam-stenavich","tag-anthony-belton","tag-football","tag-green-bay","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-greenbay","tag-greenbaypackers","tag-jager-burton","tag-jordan-morgan","tag-luke-butkus","tag-matt-lafleur","tag-national-football-league","tag-nfl","tag-packers","tag-rasheed-walker","tag-sean-rhyan","tag-zach-tom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116894336532299141","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=941558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/941559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}