Inexperienced Bay Packers LT Elgton Jenkins Dominated Out for Sunday Night time Recreation at San Francisco 49ers
GREEN BAY, Wisconsin – Since Elgton Jenkins started his rookie season, he’s been a piece of granite on the Green Bay Packers’ offensive.
As the second-round pick in 2019, Jenkins not only started 32 games in a row in the regular season, but also only missed two snapshots in that period.
These impressive achievements have come to an end. One day after ruling him dubious for Sunday’s showdown against the San Francisco 49ers, coach Matt LaFleur ruled him out on Saturday. While Jenkins was able to play through his ankle injury against Detroit on Monday night, he didn’t train this week.
The Packers survived the first two weeks without all-pro David Bakhtiari because Jenkins is one of the better offensive linemen in the NFL.
Where will the packers turn now?
“That’s the funny thing about football. It gives someone the opportunity to intervene if they have to, ”said offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett.
“Fun” is one way of putting it. Anyone who queues on the left tackle has to deal with Pro Bowl defensive end Nick Bosa, who has three sacks at the start of the season. According to Pro Football Focus, 77 of Bosa’s 95 defensive snapshots came from the right side of the defense and against the left side of the offensive line.
The packers have options.
One goes with Yosh Nijman, who entered the league in 2019 and hasn’t played a significant snapshot of scrimmage. But he had a good preseason against quality competition. The only way a player can become a reliable, battle-tested option is to be given the first opportunity.
A second option would be to use 10-year-old professional Dennis Kelly on the left tackle. He started four games in the left tackle for the Tennessee Titans in 2019, allowing one sack and five total pressures.
A third option would be to switch Billy Turner from the right tackle to the left tackle and replace him with Kelly. In his first five starts in the left tackle last season – four in the regular season and in the playoff game against the Rams – Turner only allowed one sack. In the NFC Championship Game, however, he gave up two sacks and four prints against Tampa Bay.
Bosa is one of the best pass-rushers in the NFL. In 2019, the number 2 overall draft selection had nine sacks and 16 tackles for losses to be named NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. After missing most of last season with a cruciate ligament tear, he has three sacks in two games this year.
“I still think Nick will get better and better over the course of this year,” Niners manager Kyle Shanahan told NBC Sports Bay Area. “I think he’s not at his best yet. It’s very hard to be when you can’t go through a whole offseason, a whole training camp. But at the moment he’s good enough, and that’s the exciting thing – when a guy is playing at a high level and you think there’s more to it. I think he thinks there is more and that’s why, along with Nick and the rest of our team, the difference in what you do over the course of a year is that you start at a certain level, but you do get better or worse as the season goes and I expect Nick to get better. “
