Recent NFL news shows the Packers made the correct decision in the draft

Today's price is not yesterday's price in the NFL. Market changes frequently and constantly, and it has been particularly true for a position that previously hadn't received as much value. The interior of the offensive line.

On Tuesday, for instance, the Denver Broncos agreed to pay guard Quinn Meinerz a four-year, $80 million contract. While Meinerz is a really good player who deserves the recognition for his high-level play since being a third-round pick in 2021, a $20 million yearly average shows how high the guard market is now.

And that should give the Green Bay Packers confidence about their draft decision. Back in April, the Packers selected offensive lineman Jordan Morgan in the first round, with the 25th overall pick. Now, especially considering market trends, the decision can make sense in multiple ways.

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"He played left tackle, he's got left tackle feet, very athletic kid," Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said right after making the pick. "A lot is going to depend on the player. He's got 37-plus starts at left tackle, so that's what he's done but, at the same time, he's a really smart kid. I think that's one of those things, I don't know if you really know if he can do that early on until you get him in the building and see how he grasps things and stuff like that. But we would expect he'll be a quick learner and be able to pick up whatever they ask him to do."

Positional value vs. market

According to a recent study made by PFF , tackle is in fact the more valuable position — and the most valuable among offensive linemen. Combining the top 32 players at each position during the 2020 season, they concluded that this is how many wins above replacement were generated:

• Tackles: 6.00
• Guards: 4.89
• Centers: 2.53

Center, by the way, ended up being the least valuable position in football, even behind running back. But the study shows the difference between tackles and guards isn't that significant — a 1.11-win difference combining 64 players throughout an entire season is marginal.

And the market is also recognizing that. As we had mentioned even before Morgan's selection , seven of the ten most expensive contracts given to offensive linemen on average per year in free agency this offseason were signed by interior players.

There are two guards (Landon Dickerson and Chris Lindstrom) among the top 9 highest-paid offensive linemen in football , and now there are three of them tied for 10th — Robert Hunt, Quenton Nelson, and Quinn Meinerz. The Packers themselves have a relatively expensive guard in Elgton Jenkins, who makes $17 million per year — it's by far their highest paid offensive player, until Jordan Love gets an extension done.

So if Jordan Morgan ends up playing at tackle, that's excellent. But even if his short arms or any other aspect preclude him from that, and he becomes a good guard, that will be more than enough to justify his draft position. The outcome is yet to be understood, but in terms of process, the Packers took a solid path, and it's becoming clearer by the time.

Related: Jordan Morgan shows at OTAs exactly what the Packers saw to draft him in the first round