Packers offensive line needs the preseason reps to get Green Bay's offense ready to be Super

Matt LaFleur says he's going to play his healthy players, including starters. While the offensive line is getting sorted out, they need the reps more than anyone.

Even if Matt LaFleur hadn’t already declared that healthy players would play in the preseason opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers, one group absolutely needed to play: the offensive line. New left tackle, new full-time center, an already-injured left guard, and a right guard battle leaves Zach Bako-Bewele as the only true holdover of the group. And even he’s coming into the season under a new name.

Fitting given the paradigmatic changes this offensive line faces.

According to LaFleur, the only way for this group to coalesce is actually to play together. Practice is not enough.

“I think it takes games for that to happen,” LaFleur said this week.

“The more these guys can play together, then the faster it will happen.”

Unless LaFleur changes his mind, something he reminded everyone he could still do, healthy starters will be expected to play some snaps in Pittsburgh. The Packers’ head coach said he believes the team has played better early in the season when they’ve played frontline players in the exhibition season, and Green Bay has a divisional opponent in Week 1 in Minnesota for the Kyler Murray-led Vikings.

“There’s a lot of data out there that will tell you that if your guys get ‘X’ amount of snaps in the preseason, I think it’s like over three times less likely that they get injured in the regular season.”

Last year, LaFleur also mentioned studies supporting players playing in the preseason, and The Leap found several studies that confirmed his thesis (though the NFL didn’t confirm those were the studies sent to teams as LaFleur suggested). The data in the studies we found did not offer the specific snap count thresholds LaFleur referenced.

For the offensive line, it’s a simple syllogism: If Jordan Love is going to play, then some offensive line starters have to play. Matt LaFleur wants Love to play, ergo, some offensive linemen have to play.

Even then, though, the starters are far from a sure thing.

Left tackle has been no problem in training camp for Jordan Morgan moving over from guard and right tackle, but he’s never been the preferred starter before. Even if Tyrod Taylor and the backups had been out there, Morgan would have been a lock to see some time.

He needs the reps.