Green Bay Packers coaches spent all of last season treating Anthony Belton as an emergency plan. This offseason, they made him a starter.
Belton, a second-round pick in 2025 who played left tackle his entire college career, was drafted to develop into a swing tackle. Instead, an injury-thinned offensive line forced Green Bay to throw him into the interior in Week 12 against the Minnesota Vikings, with almost no practice reps at guard beforehand. He never left the lineup. Now heading into training camp, which opens July 29, the Packers have stopped hedging: right guard is Belton’s job to keep or lose.
From Emergency Fill-In to Projected Starter
Belton played every offensive tackle snap during his rookie preseason. Then Green Bay’s line got hit with injuries, and he found himself starting at guard in the regular season with essentially no reps there.
“Last year, he was a tackle and we were just having him play swing tackle, focus on that. And then all of a sudden we lost a bunch of guys,” Packers offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said.
The results were rough. Belton finished the 2025 season with a Pro Football Focus grade of 49.7, ranking 72nd among 81 qualified guards, with a particularly ugly pass-blocking mark. He allowed the highest pressure rate among the league’s starting right guards, according to Pro Football Focus data cited by multiple outlets.
But the week-to-week trend line pointed up. His run-blocking grade climbed from 39.5 in his first start to 71.5 by the regular-season finale, before dipping again in a playoff loss to the Chicago Bears. Offensive line coach Luke Butkus has pointed to that stretch as evidence the growing pains were tied to the position switch, not a talent ceiling.
ESPN’s Ben Solak is banking on that improvement continuing. In a piece on 2026 breakout candidates, Solak wrote that with Green Bay having
“finished experimenting with Belton as a swing tackle and committed to playing him at right guard,”
he expects a better version of the lineman this season, crediting a full offseason of reps at his new spot rather than a late-year scramble.
Why the Packers Need Belton to Hit
Green Bay’s offense leans heavily on shotgun runs that require linemen to win vertical, downhill blocks rather than simply hold the point of attack. Solak argues that scheme rewards Belton’s size and power once his technique catches up, calling him a potential
“defining force in the running game”
for a unit that struggled to create movement up front in 2025.
Left guard was supposed to be the Packers’ anchor there. Aaron Banks signed a four-year, $77 million contract last offseason and instead had what multiple outlets have called a disappointing debut season in Green Bay. That puts more weight on Belton to be the interior lineman who consistently moves people off the ball in 2026.
He won’t have the job simply handed to him. Rookie fifth-round pick Jager Burton is in the mix at guard as well, and at least one Packers-focused outlet has floated the idea that Belton’s long-term future could still be back at tackle, where his frame — he measured 6-foot-3 and 336 pounds at the 2025 Scouting Combine — more naturally fits. For now, though, coaches have been clear the right guard spot is his to lose.
| Metric (2025 season) | Anthony Belton |
|---|---|
| PFF overall grade | 49.7 (72nd of 81 qualified guards) |
| PFF pass-blocking grade | 43.3 (73rd of 81) |
| PFF run-blocking grade | 51.9 (66th of 81) |
| Snaps at right guard, final 7 games | 423 (100% of offensive snaps) |
The Bigger Picture: Life Without Micah Parsons to Start the Year
Belton’s development matters more this year because Green Bay is also bracing to open the season without star pass rusher Micah Parsons, who tore his left ACL — and had a meniscus procedure discovered during the same surgery — in a Week 15 loss to the Denver Broncos last December.
Parsons is expected to begin training camp on the physically unable to perform list, which would keep him out for at least the first four games. According to Green Bay Press-Gazette reporter Ryan Wood, Parsons has described a strict “nine-month rule” tied to his combined ACL and meniscus recovery. Parsons himself has said he’s targeting a return around the middle of October, which would put him back on the field somewhere around Week 6 or 7 — though independent reporting from outlets tracking his recovery, including Athlon Sports and Acme Packing Company, frames a Week 4 or 5 return as the more conservative, likely floor depending on how his ramp-up goes. Green Bay has not released an official target date.
Speaking to reporters, Parsons made clear he’s not interested in rushing it.
“The goal isn’t for me to go out there and re-hurt myself trying to force myself to be back in the first few games,”
he said.
“The goal has always been playoffs, and I think we’re all on the same page.”
Green Bay went winless in the five games it played after losing Parsons last season, a collapse that included blowing a 21-3 halftime lead in a Wild Card loss to the Bears. That history is a big part of why the offensive line’s performance carries extra weight this summer — if the defense is going to be without its best player for the first month or more, the offense needs to be able to control games and shorten them.
What to Watch in Training Camp
Belton’s snaps at right guard during padded practices, and how he holds up in one-on-one pass-rush drills specifically, will be the clearest early signal of whether last season’s late improvement was real progress or a small sample against tired late-season competition. Burton’s reps behind him are worth tracking too — if the rookie pushes hard enough to force a competition, that changes the offensive line calculus heading into September.
This piece will be updated if the Packers make roster moves along the offensive line or provide an official update on Parsons’ recovery timeline once training camp opens.
