2015 Green Bay Packers Offensive Line Will Be Best of Mike McCarthy Era

The key signing and tender on Tuesday of free-agent offensive linemen Bryan Bulaga and Don Barclay, respectively, ensured that the 2015 Green Bay Packers offensive line will be the best in the Mike McCarthy era. 

The Bulaga signing was reported by ESPN's Chris Mortensen, while Wes Hodkiewicz of the Green Bay Press-Gazette had the news of Barclay receiving the restricted free-agent tender. 

The moves mean that the Packers will have a lot of money tied up in the offensive line in 2015, but keeping the unit intact until 2017 will help ensure that Aaron Rodgers is given the support he needs to run a potent offense.

Bulaga's contract breakdown has not yet been released, but the table below shows the cap hits for the starting five—Bulaga, Josh Sitton, T.J. Lang, David Bakhtiari and Corey Linsley—in 2015. It will be updated to reflect Bulaga's deal—which amounts to an average of just under $7 million per year, per NFL.com's Ian Rapoport—but presumably the cap hit will be less than that.

Player	Position	Base Salary	2015 Cap Hit
Total Cap Hit			$14,055,100
Bryan Bulaga	RT	Not yet reported	Not yet reported
Josh Sitton	LG	$5,100,000	$7,000,000
T.J. Lang	RG	$4,200,000	$5,800,000
David Bakhtiari	LT	$585,000	$698,850
Corey Linsley	C	$510,000	$556,250

However, it's money well-spent.

The low-cost deals of left tackle David Bakhtiari and center Corey Linsley help keep the Packers' offensive line expenses from eating up too high a percentage of the overall cap, though it's worth noting that Sitton, Lang and Bakhtiari all have contracts set to expire in 2017. 

The Packers will undoubtedly restructure core members of the line to keep it from breaking apart all at once, but the important thing is this: This core group, which performed so well in 2014, will be protecting Rodgers and enabling the run through 2017, which puts the Packers in prime position to win now. 

In the last two seasons, Rodgers has enjoyed the lowest sack rates of his career. He was sacked 28 times in 2014 and just 21 times in 2013, after being sacked a career-high 51 times in 2012. Since he became the full-time starter in 2008, Rodgers had never been sacked fewer than 31 times in a season until 2013. 

The same line that kept Rodgers on his feet last season is returning in 2015, and it's reasonable to expect that he will once again have a sack rate lower than his career average of 35.9 as a starter. 

Pro Football Focus has a pass-blocking-efficiency metric, which measures "pressure allowed on a per-snap basis with weighting toward sacks allowed." It was the highest since Rodgers became the starter in 2014. 

Season	Rank	Pass-Blocking-Efficiency Rating	Tot. Pressure Allowed
2014	2	85.1	112
2013	4	82.5	142
2012	13	80.6	156
2011	10	82.2	144
2010	11	80.8	152
2009	25	78.5	172
2008	16	80.9	146

However, it's clear that Rodgers' play helps the offensive line as much as it helps him. Though Rodgers only took 21 sacks in 2013, Packers quarterbacks as a whole had 45, as Seneca Wallace, Matt Flynn and Scott Tolzien started seven games between them. 

That's why it's important to distinguish the performance of the offensive line from the play of Rodgers or Eddie Lacy when it comes to pass protection and run blocking, respectively. 

According to Football Outsiders' adjusted-line-yards formula, the Packers' offensive line was the eighth-best in the league in run blocking last season.

Lacy and Green Bay's running backs averaged 4.39 yards per carry in 2014. Per the adjusted-line-yards formula, which "takes all running back carries and assigns responsibility to the offensive line," per Football Outsiders, they had 4.08, which is how the No. 8 ranking is calculated. 

This is how the Packers have ranked in both run blocking and pass blocking, per Football Outsiders, since Rodgers became the starter.  

Season	Run-Blocking Rank	Adj. Line Yards	Pass-Protection Rank	Adj. Sack Rate
2014	8	4.08	13	5.5%
2013	5	4.11	26	8.3%
2012	25	3.86	31	8.6%
2011	16	4.06	23	7.4%
2010	23	3.82	21	7.2%
2009	9	4.25	30	8.6%
2008	26	3.89	1	3.1%

Since 2008, the offensive line has essentially been a liability in pass protection. That year it was Green Bay's rebuilt offensive line, consisting of left tackle Chad Clifton, left guard Daryn Colledge, center Scott Wells, right guard Jason Spitz and right tackle Mark Tauscher that got the job done.

However, as a whole, the 2014 offensive line has been the best offensive line in the McCarthy era, given its completeness in both run blocking and pass protection, and 2015 should top it.  

Consistency has certainly been key. Left tackle Bakhtiari will be entering his third year at the position, after it changed hands from Clifton in 2010 to Marshall Newhouse in 2011-2012 to, finally, Bakhtiari, who was a marked improvement over Newhouse. 

At right tackle, too, Bulaga's return from a torn ACL with which he missed the 2013 season strengthened the group in 2013. At the guard spots, Sitton and Lang, who have started together since 2011, have been the league's top guard duo. 

Per Pro Football Focus, Lang was the No. 2 right guard in the league in 2014, and Sitton was the No. 2 left guard. The Packers and the Baltimore Ravens were the only two teams to have two guards rank in the top 10 overall last season. 

The center position could have become a weakness in 2014, as losing veteran Evan Dietrich-Smith in free agency was a blow. But rookie Linsley finished the season ranked as the No. 5 center in the league per Pro Football Focus, a remarkable feat considering that Linsley, drafted by Green Bay in the fifth round last year, didn't even enter training camp as the starting center. 

The 2014 Packers offensive line was the most balanced of Rodgers' career, which in turn saw one of the most productive Packers offenses in years. 

"The offensive line has been playing so good that we've been controlling the line of scrimmage," Rodgers said in a press conference after the win against the Atlanta Falcons on December 8. 

"When the line plays like that, we can be balanced."

Not only will that starting core return in 2015, but it will also have more depth behind it: Barclay, who spent the 2013 season on injured reserve, will be healthy, as will JC Tretter. For many recent years, Packers fans held their breath when an offensive lineman appeared to be injured on the field—would Newhouse or Derek Sherrod have to take the field?

But between them, Barclay and Tretter are capable of backing up all five positions on the line. 

This lineup is the most talented one the Packers have had in McCarthy's tenure. Just a glance at each starter's ranking at his position in 2014 says it all:

Player	Position	Ranking
David Bakhtiari	LT	19th
Josh Sitton	LG	2nd
Corey Linsley	C	5th
T.J. Lang	RG	2nd
Bryan Bulaga	RT	4th

With consistency at every position and top-five players in the league at center, left guard, right guard and right tackle, the 2015 Packers offensive line will be the best Rodgers has played behind in his career.

It will allow the Packers to feature an offense balanced between the pass and the run, and it will keep Green Bay's defense rested by helping the offense convert third downs. (Green Bay converted 47.2 percent of third downs in 2014, its highest conversion rate since 2011). 

Applaud Thompson and Packers vice president of player finance Russ Ball for keeping this unit intact. With some consistency, it's going to be one of the all-time best.