Anthony Belton OUT vs. Cowboys on Sunday

In his pre-practice press conference on Friday, Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur stated that rookie second-round pick Anthony Belton will miss Sunday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys due to a knee injury. According to LaFleur, Belton, who finished last week’s game against the Cleveland Browns, was injured in Wednesday’s practice.

This makes sense, considering that Belton was listed as a limited participant on Wednesday but missed practice entirely on Thursday. Per LaFleur, this isn’t a long-term injury.

Belton isn’t a preferred starter, but he has played the most right tackle snaps for the Packers this year due to Zach Tom’s oblique injury. Tom reportedly will miss this week’s action.

Last week, the pecking order at right tackle was Tom, Jordan Morgan and then Belton. Morgan, though, might need to start at left guard, as preferred starting left guard Aaron Banks (groin) has missed back-to-back practices and has been unable to finish a game this season.

So, who would start in place of Tom and Belton at right tackle? In all likelihood, it’ll be Darian Kinnard, who was traded from the Philadelphia Eagles on August 24th.

In total, the Packers are dealing with seven injuries on the offensive line. Travis Glover, Jacob Monk and John Williams are on the team’s injury lists. Tom, Belton, Banks and left tackle Rasheed Walker are on Green Bay’s injury report this week.

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Here are some stats on the projected Packers’ offensive line of Walker, Morgan, Jenkins, Rhyan and Kinnard (left to right):

• The team has played 18 snaps this year with that lineup, 17 of which came in Week 2. The one snap in Week 1 was a four-yard run with Emanuel Wilson before kneeldowns. Essentially, that was a sacrifice to get the clock rolling, as the Packers were testing whether or not the Lions were going to use their timeouts.
• On those 18 plays, the Packers averaged 10.7 yards per play and scored two touchdowns.
• Here are the yardage gained by Green Bay with the lineup this year: 4, 15, 4, 57, 1, INC, 14, 5 (TD), INC, 9, 3, 37, 3, 17, -1, 17, 5 and 2 (TD).