The one thing that seems to be getting lost in the weeds here is that OL, typically, take 2-3 years to come into their own and develop as a player.
Seldom do you see an OL that's drafted lower than 2nd round step in and play "lights-out" right away. Those kind of expectations are ,rightfully, reserved for those top few OL in every draft. We've been more than a little spoiled with our recent history of guys like Bakhtiari (4th round), Linsley (5th round), Jenkins (2nd round) playing extremely well almost right away in their careers.
And the fact that GB has drafted OL-men pretty well over the years, gives me pause to think that young players like Newman and Runyan will improve and become good OL players for GB.
Factor in that OL coaches, Stenovich and Butkus, have patched together, and coached up, a workable OL in spite of the injury situation this year and I'm not quite ready to kick these young players to the curb at this juncture.
Case in point is Yosh Nijman, they've kept him around 2-3 years because they see something in him that they feel can be developed into a dependable OL-man, and his play has started to reflect their confidence in his potential. He has been trending in a positive direction for at least the last year.
The same can be said of Ben Braden as well. Remember during training camp when they talked about Braden as a possible starter this year. No, it didn't happen. But he has been trending in a positive direction, and how much more can you ask of young lineman who were late round draft picks or UDFA's?
At this point, Lucas Patrick, after 5 yrs of NFL experience, is what he is. And my guess is they won't offer him an extension that would cost significantly more than what they can pay these younger guys in a tight cap situation for 2022.
If they go out and draft a pile of OL this next draft, they could very easily be in the same spot they are right now.
JMHO
