GREEN BAY, Wis. - The best offensive lines are the lines that practice together and play together.
Well, so much for that for the Green Bay Packers.
On Thursday night against the Carolina Panthers, their eighth game of the season, they will roll out a sixth different starting combination this year that will include an 11th starter.
With center Sean Rhyan inactive with an ankle injury and right guard Travis Glover inactive with a knee injury, the Packers based on pregame warmups will roll with John Williams at center, Aaron Banks at left guard and, in a surprise, Laken Tomlinson moving from left guard to right guard. They will join Jordan Morgan, the pillar of the line at left tackle, and Anthony Belton, who will be making his sixth start at right tackle.
The Packers entered Week 8 having used a league-high 10 individual starters, one more than the Ravens, Patriots, Chargers and Eagles. Now, Williams, they're up to an absurd total of 11.
The Packers lost to the Lions last week, but it had nothing to do with losing the top centers, Sean Rhyan and Jacob Monk, after one series.
That's because John Williams rode to the rescue in the first snaps from scrimmage in his NFL career.
"That was one of the cooler things I've seen in a really long time," offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said on Wednesday. "Obviously, when Sean and Monk both went down after the first drive, I was extremely concerned with just us being able to operate, especially on the road, and against that defensive line. What he did, it wasn't perfect, but he did a great job. So, I can't say enough about how he stepped up for the team."
His work against the Lions put him in position to make his first career start at a relatively foreign position.
Williams played left tackle in addition to being an aerospace engineering major at Cincinnati. The Packers drafted him in the seventh round last year but he spent his entire rookie season on injured reserve with a back injury. From the moment he was drafted, his only practice time last year was the final three weeks of the regular season after being designated for return.
Williams spent the offseason practices and start of training camp playing center before being moved out to left tackle for the entire preseason.
"It was kind of out of necessity," Stenavich said of the trial at center in the spring. "Monk was down and we just needed guys to train to snap. Obviously, it's kind of one of those jobs, anyone that's available that you think can handle it, you want to get them some reps in there just for that instance right there.
"John's the utility guy every game, where he can play tackle, he can play guard and obviously go in and play center, too. That's just one of those deals where you've just got to get guys ready for that situation."
Williams played well. Pro Football Focus charged him with only one pressure allowed.
"Obviously, I've been switching around a little bit," Williams said. "Getting to focus on center, that'll be good for me to just focus on one position."
For the first time since Week 2, Aaron Banks will play. The $77 million free agent played 22 snaps in that game and zero since. After being saddled with a knee injury throughout training camp, an injury that kept him out of Week 1, Banks was inactive the next four games with knee and toe injuries. He was active last week at Detroit but only played special teams.
This week, he was projected as full participation at Wednesday's practice, a first this season.
So, would the Packers continue to roll with Laken Tomlinson, who played well the past four weeks at left guard, or go back to Banks, who was given a $77 million contract in free agency last offseason?
Instead, the answer was both.
Banks is back in the saddle at left guard. The move was to switch Tomlinson to right guard. It's in line with the Packers' best-five philosophy but bizarre from an experience perspective.
Tomlinson entered the NFL in 2015. He has played 10,731 snaps at left guard and 65 at right guard. The last time he played a line position other than left guard was 2016. Moreover, the Packers didn't even practice this week, so it's not as if Tomlinson got an abundance of reps at right guard, though he might have gotten them last week, when Banks was practicing.
Of all the uncertainty up front this season, and especially this week, Stenavich said:
"It's been difficult. And not only that, but there's been instances where it's like, 'All right, let's split reps with these two guys and let's see who has a better week of practice.' We have an idea of where we're going, but then it's not always cut and dried until we get to Friday, usually. Then we know what we're doing.
"So, yeah, it's been a really weird year from that standpoint, but again, it doesn't matter. We've got to make sure we put the best five out there and get the results."
After the team's first Thursday night debacle, a blowout loss to Atlanta in which their offensive line was demolished, the Packers signed veteran guards Laken Tomlinson and Kevin Zeitler to the 53-man roster and Mekhi Becton to the practice squad.
Tomlinson started right away at left guard with Travis Glover plugged in at right guard. The Packers gave Glover four starts, with the team going 3-1 but playing only marginally better on the offensive line. With Glover out with a knee injury that he played through at Detroit, the stars were in alignment to give Zeitler the start.
After all, Zeitler has started 213 games in his 15-year career, including all but one game for the Titans last season and all but one game for the Lions in 2024. He had played almost 14,000 snaps at right guard in his career.
In four weeks with the Packers, he was a healthy scratch during his first week, played special teams the next two weeks, and was inactive against Detroit.
"He's ready. He's preparing to play," Stenavich said this week.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/packers/onsi as Packers Makes Most Unexpected Change Imaginable on Offensive Line vs. Panthers .
