“He’s got some nasty in the run game,” Todd McShay said of Packers second-round pick Anthony Belton, but where’s his best spot?
The Green Bay Packers signed 325-pound Aaron Banks to play left guard. Could 336-pound rookie Anthony Belton, their second-round pick, be their right guard?
It’s possible, NFL Draft analyst Todd McShay said.
“Honestly, it’s right tackle or guard for Belton, in my opinion,” McShay, the former ESPN draft guru and the author of The McShay Report, said on Monday.
Belton was a three-year starting left tackle at North Carolina State. He thought taking Belton in the second was “too high” but understood the pick.
“He’s obviously big; 6-6, 336, arm length of a tackle – not great arm length but arm length of a tackle,” he continued. “He’s just got that massive frame. I thought he was surprisingly light on his feet in a short area. He’s got the frame to withstand the bull rush. He’s got some nasty to his game. In the run game, massive, wide-bodied frame, walls off defenders, physical to drive, strength to move guys off the line.”
Belton was exclusively a left tackle for the Wolfpack, but position coach Garett Tujague made sure he got plenty of work at right tackle at practice to help get him ready for the NFL. He played well at guard at the Senior Bowl, though.
The Packers, as is typically the case for their linemen, don’t have a preconceived spot for Belton. They’ll shuffle him around in the quest to find the best combination.
“I wouldn’t say he has to be somewhere” as a rookie, McShay said. “I think that maybe as a rookie, guard might be the best spot, and then you develop him and see if you can kick him back outside to tackle. But it wouldn’t shock me if he’s Week 1 starter at guard.”
Incumbent right guard Sean Rhyan, who was in a timeshare with last year’s first-round pick, Jordan Morgan, for the first half of last season, played well in 17 starts but not so well that he’s irreplaceable. He’ll be a free agent at the end of the season, so there’s a potential spot for Belton to start right away.
“I think he’s landing in a really good place. The development of offensive linemen in Green Bay has always been really good,” McShay said. He assumed the Packers saw the same, fixable issues on tape that he saw.
“I see a guy who can get a little sloppy with his technique and he needs some refinement,” McShay said. “But he’s a career left tackle. When I was done with his report, I was like ‘kick inside to guard, maybe right tackle.’”
While Morgan didn’t love the idea of playing at guard after starting at left tackle at Arizona, Belton seems to be embracing whatever’s ahead.
“I’m pretty comfortable with that,” Belton said of playing guard after being drafted. “Just my mindset, I’m a competitor and I’m a ball-player. I want to put myself in a position where I’m out there being one of the five out there. If it’s at guard, I’m going to figure out how to be the best version of myself at guard. My mindset, I’m going in there as a competitor, I just want to play ball and I want to be in a position to be out there on that field.”