As Jordan Morgan progressed into a first-round prospect as an offensive lineman, he often watched former Green Bay Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari.
Now, Morgan, formerly of Arizona, could have the opportunity to step into Bakhtiari’s former position on the Packers’ offensive line.
Breaking from their usual focus on defensive players in the first round, the Packers drafted Morgan with the 25th overall pick in the NFL draft on Thursday night. Morgan aims to model his game after Bakhtiari, who earned All-Pro honors.
“He’s very balanced and he has a good strike — he has a really good strike in the pass game, really strong arms, really strong upper body and he can lock people up, which is where I get my game from,” Morgan said.
While Morgan primarily played left tackle at Arizona, his NFL position isn’t set. Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst believes Morgan is versatile enough to play tackle or guard.
“I think he can play all four spots (left tackle, left guard, right tackle and right guard),” Gutekunst said.
“We’re fortunate enough that we’ve got a lot of guys in our group right now that can do that, and so I think we’ll kind of let the best five battle it out and see where that ends up.”
This marks only the second time in the past 13 drafts that the Packers have chosen an offensive player with their first pick. The previous instance was in 2020 when they traded up to select Utah State quarterback Jordan Love at No. 26 overall.
Morgan is the first offensive lineman the Packers have taken in the first round since Derek Sherrod in 2011. “Where we had him valued, this was a pretty easy decision for us,” Gutekunst said.
Green Bay needed to strengthen its offensive line after losing much of its depth recently. They released Bakhtiari due to chronic knee issues, and lost guard Jon Runyan Jr. and tackle Yosh Nijman in free agency.
