The Most Important Green Bay Packers: Rookie Josh Myers Is The Frontrunner At Center

The Green Bay Packers went 13-3 last season, won the NFC North and reached the NFC Championship Game for a second straight year. The Packers lost to Tampa Bay, though, 31-26, in the conference title game and the offseason has been packed with drama.

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers wants out of Green Bay, but the Packers have insisted they won’t move him. Stay tuned for more theatrics there in the days ahead.

With or without Rodgers, Green Bay will start training camp on July 28. Throughout the rest of the month, I will count down the ‘30 Most Important Packers’ heading into the 2021 campaign.

At No. 19 is rookie center Josh Myers. The other players that have been revealed in the top-30 are listed at the bottom of the story.

No. 19

C Josh Myers

Bio: Green Bay selected center Josh Myers of Ohio State in the second round of April’s draft after losing Pro Bowl center Corey Linsley in free agency.

The 6-foot-5, 310-pound Myers was the No. 1 recruit in the state of Ohio in the class of 2017.

Myers was a two-year starter at OSU, and earned first-team all-Big Ten honors by the coaches and second-team honors by the media in 2020.

Myers is a big-bodied center with an impressive level of lateral mobility. His size works to his advantage against power players, but he can struggle against edge attacks.

He’s not a natural bender, but is extremely bright, makes all the calls up front and was a captain at OSU.

Myers played primarily guard until 2018, when the Buckeyes had a hole at center and he made the switch.

Myers suffered a turf-toe injury in the 2020 Big Ten Championship game. He chose to keep playing, though, and started against Clemson and Alabama in the College Football Playoff.

After the season ended, an MRI and X-ray showed Myers had broken a bone underneath his foot and had an avulsion of the tendon on another bone. Therefore, he only participated in the bench press at Ohio State’s Pro Day.

Still, that level of toughness impressed the Packers’ brass and was one of many reasons Green Bay used a second round pick on him.

Outlook: Linsley, the best center in football in 2020, went to the Los Angeles Chargers in free agency. Left tackle David Bakhtiari, who tore his ACL before Week 17 last year, might miss the start of the 2021 campaign. Top reserves Ricky Wagner and Lane Taylor have also moved on.

With so many holes up front, Myers will be given every chance to be in the lineup in Week 1 — and replace the enormous shoes Linsley has left behind.

Comments

“Once you get a guy, a rookie like Josh, you’ve got to basically start back from ground zero. You just start everything back with ground zero and build your way up as fast as you can go depending on how fast they pick up the scheme and the techniques and all that stuff. The good news with Josh is he’s played at a big time program, very experienced guy in a lot of big games in college so he’s able to handle a lot of things mentally and it’s just a matter of getting him reps and getting him confident and hopefully we can get him going as fast as possible.” — Packers offensive line coach Adam Stenavich on Myers

“I think with lineman kind of coming from the Power 5, every single day in practice they’re going against guys that probably have NFL futures or at least are prospects in some ways. I think there’s a bit of a hardening that goes on through that process that allows those guys to maybe step into the National Football League at a quick pace than some. A lot of confidence there. He was one of those centers who kind of ran the show there. He’s a little bit bigger than maybe some of the centers we’ve had in the past here, which is something that obviously I like, so he’s going to be a nice addition to our group.” — Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst on Myers

“Things are stacked in his favor that he’s the right kind of guy you want to go out there with and I have full confidence that he’ll give his best effort and we’ll see what happens after that. But we anticipate good things.” — Packers director of college scouting Matt Malaspina on Myers

 “My coaches asked me to move to center after my redshirt year (2017) at Ohio State and really they needed me to do it, so I did what was best for the team in that situation and ended up falling in love with the position, everything about it. I love the physicality. I love the fact you kind of have to be a leader. You have to make calls. Just all the things that come with it, I just fell in love with.” — Myers on his move to center

THE TOP 30

• No. 30 — OG Jon Runyan

• No. 29 — ILB De’Vondre Campbell

• No. 28 — WR/PR Amari Rodgers

• No. 27 — CB Chandon Sullivan

• No. 26 — ILB Krys Barnes

• No. 25 — WR Allen Lazard

• No. 24 — CB Eric Stokes

• No. 23 — DE Kingsley Keke

• No. 22 — OG Lucas Patrick

• No. 21 — RB AJ Dillon

• No. 20 — OLB Preston Smith