Will Health Alone Improve the Packers’ Offensive Line In 2026?

It was a game of musical chairs on the offensive line for the Green Bay Packers much of the 2025 season. Few and far between were the games where the Packers went wire to wire with their preferred starting five up front.

The group’s collective struggle was a rarity in Green Bay. So, will a healthy starting five make everything better in 2026, sans reinforcements?

Rasheed Walker was the only core member of the group who started in every game last year. Sean Rhyan played in every game but didn't start every one and pivoted between guard and center. The two who cashed in during the offseason — Aaron Banks via free agency and Zach Tom on a lucrative extension — were in and out of the lineup. Green Bay opted to slide Jordan Morgan around everywhere except his natural position at left tackle.

The problems didn't come out of nowhere. They were evident early on, dating back to the Week 3 loss in Cleveland. Quarterback Jordan Love was sacked five times and hit seven times; that was the first thing head coach Matt LaFleur noted in his postgame press conference.

The struggles carried over into the postseason, when Green Bay saw Love constantly harassed in the second half of their loss to the Chicago Bears, with little time to throw.

“There were multiple protection busts. They amped up their level of pressure, and we didn’t adjust to it,” said after that game. “We were in situations where every O-lineman has a man in front of them, we cut a guy loose, and he’s a free runner to the quarterback. That happened at least four times in that last game.”

LaFleur later noted that if the Packers simply blocked the right way, there wouldn't have been any issues.

It was the offensive line that dealt with those struggles amid numerous injuries. Per Warren Sharp, the Packers ranked 30th in the NFL in snaps played together by the most frequent offensive line combination. It was just 18% for Green Bay, lower than every team except the New Orleans Saints and Los Angeles Chargers.

So, how do those numbers correlate to performance?

Pro Football Focus released its detailed list ranking every offensive line in January. Those bottom three teams in snaps played together on the offensive line by the most frequent group, the Packers, Saints, and Chargers? They ranked 19th, 25th, and 30th, respectively. To further support the importance of cohesion, PFF ranked the Cleveland Browns as the second-worst offensive line last season and the Las Vegas Raiders as the worst. Per Sharp's model, those two ranked 27th and 28th in snaps played together by the preferred group.

There's clearly a connection between cohesion up front and the performances that follow. It's not the only thing Green Bay can cling to, though.

Even when he was healthy and available, Banks struggled early on at left guard. As the season carried along, he seemed to get more comfortable. Elgton Jenkins didn't pan out at center and left in free agency. The Packers retained Rhyan in a new deal and will take over that spot, where he was fine but not spectacular in 2025. Green Bay will task Morgan with taking over at left tackle after Walker splits. They're placing a lot of faith in Morgan as Love’s blindside protector.

The point is that even when Green Bay’s O-line was mostly intact, it was still far from the poetry in motion we've seen from offensive lines of years past. The truth is that, if they can stay healthy, the consistency should follow. Still, they'll also just need talent to become a top-tier group.

As PFF noted, players like Banks will just have to be better individually.

To say the offensive line is on solid ground at the moment would be a stretch, but they might not be as far away from solving the riddle as you think.