The Green Bay Packers signed Kevin Zeitler to help steady a shaky offensive line and give their run game some life, but a month in, he still hasn’t seen the field in a game that counts. That was true again in the loss to the Detroit Lions, when Zeitler was a healthy scratch for the second straight week.
At this stage, the decision is getting harder to defend. The Packers’ ground game has been a problem all season, and while getting Josh Jacobs back helps, it hasn’t fixed the bigger issue. Green Bay brought Zeitler in for a reason, and leaving him on the bench while the offense continues to sputter on the ground makes little sense.
Matt LaFleur pointed to depth and flexibility up front when explaining the move.
“I think all these guys are doing a pretty good job,” LaFleur said of not activating Zeitler. “Getting Banks back was part of that... And then you got to have guys that obviously can come in and snap the ball and play center, and we were down to our third center today,” the head coach added.
The center concern is real enough, but it also feels like a moving target. LaFleur’s explanation leans on a scenario no one could have fully anticipated, even though the Packers had already chosen not to dress Zeitler. That’s part of why the logic feels off.
Travis Glover has held up at right guard, at least to a point, but “good” is a pretty thin standard when the line has been one of the team’s biggest issues. In a division as tough as this one, Green Bay needs the best five on the field, not a placeholder setup.
Aaron Banks has battled inconsistency when available, but his spot at left guard was never really in doubt because of his age and salary. On the right side, Zeitler still looks like the clearest answer. If he isn’t, then the signing itself starts to look like a desperate fix - or an admission from Brian Gutekunst that the offensive line was in worse shape than anyone wanted to admit.
The Packers didn’t lose to Detroit because the running game alone failed them, but it certainly didn’t help. Jacobs spent much of the day fighting through stacked boxes and taking first contact either at or behind the line of scrimmage, and that’s not a formula anyone can live with for long.
Zeitler doesn’t have center experience, but that shouldn’t be the headline here. Green Bay brought him in to address its run-game problems, and nearly a month later, the team still hasn’t given him a chance to do exactly that.
There’s still time for this to change, and one loss doesn’t need to turn into panic. But if the Packers keep making avoidable choices like this, they can’t act surprised when the results stay the same.
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