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Three of the four nominees are from the upper Midwest, including one whose Sunday Night Football introduction will live in Packers fans’ minds forever.
After a long holiday weekend break, we are back to continue our examination of the best Green Bay Packers of the last 25 years. Last week, we concluded on Thursday with Jermichael Finley narrowly earing the top spot as the Packers’ #1 tight end, while David Bakhtiari was a runaway winner at the left tackle spot over Chad Clifton.
On this Monday morning, we switch our focus to the other tackle spot, looking at the right tackle position. As with the left side, the Packers have had some impressive stability at this position over the last two-plus decades. Let’s examine our nominees.
134 games played, 132 starts
One of the Packers’ great draft successes of this century, Tauscher doubles as a local hero and fan favorite. After playing high school football at Auburndale — a half hour’s drive from Stevens Point or Wisconsin Rapids — Tauscher walked on to Barry Alvarez’s Wisconsin Badgers squad and eventually became a starter. Tauscher was part of two Rose Bowl-winning teams, then saw himself get drafted by the Packers in the seventh round in 2000.
In week two in his rookie season, starting right tackle Earl Dotson went down with an injury, and Tauscher took over for him, taking hold of a right tackle job that he would keep when healthy for the next decade. Although he sat out most of the 2002 season with an injury of his own, Tauscher missed a total of just 8 games over the next six seasons from 2003-2008.
In 2009, Tauscher started the season as a free agent, but the Packers re-signed him early in the season amid Allen Barbre’s struggles at the position. He started 8 games that season, then signed for one more year for 2010. He made it just four games into that campaign before a shoulder injury brought his season to an end, but he earned a Super Bowl ring when the team went on to win Super Bowl XLV with rookie Bryan Bulaga lining up at Tauscher’s spot.
Tauscher retired having never played a down for another NFL team and is now contributes to both the Badgers and Packers radio broadcasts.
126 games played, 122 starts
BRYAN BULAGA. IOWA.
The Packers’ first-round pick in 2010, Bulaga stepped in for Tauscher with no dropoff, starting every game from week 5 onward and becoming one of the youngest players ever to start in a Super Bowl. That performance entrenched him as a long-term starter, but frequent injuries cost him chunks of time.
The biggest of those was in 2013, when Bulaga was slated to switch from right tackle to the left side. That summer, he tore his ACL during the Packers’ Family Night event, which moved from a more competitive scrimmage to a glorified practice the following...
