Thursday Thoughts: Elgton Extension?

Coach Matt LaFleur’s decision to take the bye week after Sunday’s game against the Bears rather than after the team’s trip to London in the middle of October has wound up being a huge mistake. Sure it’s 20-20 hindsight, but how different might things have been had MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers had 14 days to rest his fractured right thumb after injuring it overseas against the Giants? Instead, players will now have some extra time to think about how it all went wrong the past few months and get an early start on reserving tee times.

Anywhere, the following are just three of the numerous Packers-related thoughts that ran through my mind in recent days:

1) Re-signing Elgton Jenkins to a huge long-term extension appeared to be a no-brainer coming into the season, but it’s now likely to be one of general manager Brian Gutekunst’s more difficult decisions in the coming weeks. That’s because the former Pro Bowl left guard has looked rather ordinary since returning from a torn ACL in Week 2. The player currently wearing No. 74 isn’t worth the $16 million per year being paid to elite interior offensive linemen. If Gutekunst decides to go all in to keep Jenkins, he’ll be trusting that the 26-year-old will return to his former self the further removed he gets from the severe injury. And while that could very well happen, is it worth the risk for a cap-strapped franchise recently burned by the $92 million contract given to left tackle David Bakhtiari? The guess here is that Gutekunst will ultimately bite the bullet and choose to get a deal done, but the upcoming five games will likely determine how much he’ll be sweating when he watches Jenkins put pen to paper sometime before the start of free agency.




2) It’s seldom that all five O-linemen perform flawlessly on the same play, but that’s what happened last Sunday night in Philly. The result was a 20-yard touchdown by AJ Dillon, in which the former Boston College star wasn’t touched for the first 17 yards. Because the 245-pound running back lacks explosiveness and doesn’t typically break many tackles, he needs excellent blocking to get into the secondary, and that’s exactly what he got from the big guys up front. Left tackle David Bakhtiari neutralized Josh Sweat; left guard Jenkins picked up a blitzing Kyzir White; center Josh Myers pushed Milton Williams out of the way; right guard Jon Runyan bullied T.J. Edwards on the second level, and right tackle Yosh Nijman walled off Ndamukong Suh. Football is the ultimate team sport. LaFleur talks incessantly about the importance of all 11 players doing their job. That hasn’t occurred nearly enough this season, but it did on this snap, and the result was an easy touchdown that gave the Packers life against the heavily favored Eagles who had jumped out to an early lead.

3) A diehard fan always roots for their favorite team to win, but a smart fan knows when a loss is actually a good thing. Last Sunday evening in Philadelphia might’ve been difficult to watch, but it ended in the best interests of the Packers. While organizations with long histories of failure and new regimes like Chicago and Detroit can benefit from winning meaningless games after Thanksgiving, that certainly doesn’t apply to the Packers. The only thing a W does for them at this point is to reduce their odds of adding an impact player in next April’s draft. According to a study, there’s almost a 20 percent better chance of selecting an All-Pro in the top 10 than picking one from 11 to 20. As of this week, Gutekunst would be picking at 8, but that number will go up or down depending on the results of the next five games. The beauty of the National Football League – unlike other sports – is that teams don’t tank. Cheeseheads witnessed that firsthand in ’88 when a win in the season finale sent future Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman to Texas instead of Wisconsin. So you can be sure the Packers will give it their all in December; it just wouldn’t be the worst thing if their all isn’t good enough.


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