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Throughout training camp, Green Bay Packers rookie second-round pick Anthony Belton had practiced exclusively at the tackle positions, in a backup role, for the Packers. To me, that was somewhat understandable, since Travis Glover was placed on the injured reserve early on and Kadeem Telfort, who was a roster bubble player to begin with, would have been the next man up at tackle if there were an injury to Rasheed Walker or Zach Tom. (Spoiler: Telfort didn’t make the final roster cut.)
Then, the Packers traded for Darian Kinnard, spending a draft pick on a one-year rental tackle. That, in theory, should have freed Belton up more to move around, as long as the team believed that he could handle multiple spots. Since Week 4, Kinnard has exclusively been the backup right tackle, while Belton has exclusively been the backup left tackle.
Here’s my worry: Green Bay goes into next offseason believing that Belton is their left tackle of the future, replacing Walker, while Jordan Morgan, a former first-round pick, stays inside at guard.
Morgan was a standout at left tackle this preseason, when he was given opportunities. The reason he went so high in the draft was because of his feet, not because of his strength. On the inside, it only hides his strengths and highlights his weaknesses.
Meanwhile, Belton is sort of the opposite of Morgan. He’s not a dancing bear. His feet could use work, if the hope is that he’ll keep pace with pass-rushers 100 pounds south of his playing weight on the edge eventually. What Belton can do right now, though, is move people. Here’s what I wrote about Belton as a prospect, before the Packers took him:
Had Belton played in a full-time guard role, I think he would be thought of similarly to Alabama’s Tyler Booker, another strong and punishing blocker who isn’t athletic enough to stick on an island at tackle. It’s quite possible that teams considering Belton a guard, not a tackle, led to the late surge of interest in him as a prospect, as more coaches got involved in the process.
The Packers try almost all of their rookie offensive linemen as tackles until they can’t prove they can play the position, but I believe that Belton’s best position at the next level will be on the interior, where his quickness and strength will be highlighted more than his kick-slide and footwork. At guard, he certainly looks the part of the Day 2 selection that he’s currently being projected as per the consensus draft board.
Now, it seems like the team is getting closer to actually playing Belton at guard. In a press conference this week, Packers offensive line coach Luke Butkus said that Belton has been working in some at guard during the season, which is something that he didn’t do in practices that were open to the public or media in the summer.
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