The Packers’ offensive line has finally settled down, and that alone makes the Aaron Banks question a lot easier to answer.
Banks was a limited participant in practice Thursday, marking the second straight day he’s worked on a limited basis. That’s a step forward, but his season has been a stop-start mess from the beginning.
A knee injury kept him out of much of training camp and cost him the Packers’ Week 1 loss to the Vikings. Then a toe injury knocked him out of the Week 2 game against the Jets after just 22 snaps, and he hasn’t played since.
So now the obvious question is whether Banks gets his left guard job back when he’s ready. Matt LaFleur didn’t slam that door, but he also didn’t sound eager to rush him back.
“[The offensive line situation] is going to be pretty fluid,” he said. “We have to see where [Banks] is at. He hasn’t practiced in a long time, and those other guys have come in and done a really good job.”
That’s the polite answer. The football answer is even simpler: there’s no real reason to change course.
Laken Tomlinson has done exactly what the Packers needed at left guard. Signed off the Cowboys’ practice squad after the team gave extended looks to Donovan Jennings and Jager Burton, he has played every snap over the last two games and held up well in pass protection. The run game hasn’t exactly gotten a boost from anyone on the line, but Tomlinson has allowed just two pressures over those two games.
His presence has also helped steady Sean Rhyan. During the first three games, Rhyan was dealing with constant turbulence next to him, with Donovan Jennings, Jager Burton and Jacob Monk cycling through the guard spots.
The protection around him kept collapsing, and Rhyan was stuck trying to patch one problem after another. With Tomlinson on his left and the surprisingly solid Travis Glover on his right, Rhyan has looked much better.
In fact, his best two graded games of the season, per Pro Football Focus, have come in that setup.
That’s why bringing Banks back now would feel like turning the clock backward. His unreliable availability is a big part of how the Packers wound up in such an early-season hole on the offensive line in the first place.
And frankly, that shouldn’t have come as a shock. Banks was frequently injured with the 49ers and was frequently injured in 2025.
If he’s fighting the injury bug again, that’s more of a continuation than a surprise.
The Packers should treat him as an expensive backup unless they absolutely need him. That’s not the ideal outcome for a 2025 free agent signing, but it may be the smartest one.
The line has found a workable shape, and there’s no need to shuffle it just to force Banks back in. Tomlinson has handled left guard admirably, Travis Glover has done his part at right guard, and he is set to give way to Kevin Zeitler.
A Morgan-Tomlinson-Rhyan-Zeitler-Belton front is good enough to keep moving forward.
The money issue is ugly, of course. Banks counts more than $12 million against the Packers cap this year, while the projected starting lineup without him totals about $14.7 million.
That’s bad optics any way you slice it. But cap math doesn’t block pass rushers, and it doesn’t create running lanes.
Right now, the Packers are better off without Banks in the lineup. Unless injuries force their hand, they can keep rolling with the group that has stabilized things and leave the rest alone.
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