The Green Bay Packers are signing veteran guard Kevin Zeitler to a one-year deal, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The 36-year-old becomes the third veteran offensive lineman Green Bay has added in a matter of days, joining Laken Tomlinson and Mekhi Becton as the 1-2 Packers scramble to stabilize a line that has been the NFL’s worst pass-protecting unit through three weeks.
Zeitler, a Wisconsin native and former Badgers standout, returns home after a 15-year career that began when Cincinnati drafted him 27th overall in the 2012 first round. He has started 213 of 214 career games across six franchises — the Bengals, Cleveland Browns, New York Giants, Baltimore Ravens, Detroit Lions and Tennessee Titans — and earned his first Pro Bowl nod in 2023 after anchoring Baltimore’s line for three seasons. He followed that up with one-year stops in Detroit in 2024 and Tennessee in 2025, starting all 16 games for the Titans last season before hitting the open market again. Green Bay worked him out this week before finalizing the deal, making the Packers his seventh team and bringing one of the league’s most durable interior linemen back to the state where his college career began.
Why Green Bay Is Raiding the Veteran Market
The urgency behind adding Zeitler, Tomlinson and Becton in the same week is easy to understand once the numbers are laid out. Through three games, Green Bay’s offensive line has been graded dead last in the NFL by Pro Football Focus, posting a 41.7 pass-blocking grade and surrendering a league-high 51 pressures — 14 more than the next-closest team. The unit has also allowed an NFL-worst 20 quarterback hits, more than any other offensive line in football, to go with eight sacks of Jordan Love.
That collapse has been especially visible on the interior, where Zeitler is expected to compete for snaps. Guard Jacob Monk ranks 57th among 70 qualifying guards in PFF’s pass-blocking grade and has allowed 11 pressures, the worst mark at his position, while tackles Jordan Morgan and Anthony Belton both rank near the bottom of the league at their spot — Morgan’s 11 pressures allowed are tied for the most among tackles, and Belton ranks 63rd of 66 qualifiers in pass-blocking grade. Center Sean Rhyan has fared only marginally better, ranking 27th of 32 centers with six pressures surrendered. It’s a full-unit breakdown, which is why Green Bay is adding bodies at guard and tackle alike rather than targeting one specific spot. The result has been a pressure environment Love has never experienced in his career — he’s been pressured on 44.4% of his dropbacks this season, the highest rate among his four years as a starter and the fourth-highest of any qualifying quarterback in the league. Love’s PFF passing grade craters from 76.5 when kept clean to 25.1 under pressure, with zero touchdowns and two interceptions on pressured dropbacks. Head coach Matt LaFleur has already acknowledged he’s open to lineup changes after last week’s 35-14 blowout loss to Atlanta, in which Green Bay’s protection issues were on full display again.
What It Means for Green Bay’s Betting Markets
Green Bay opened the 2026 season with one of the more optimistic outlooks in the NFC, with its win total sitting as high as 10.5 over the summer. That number has already slid to 9.5 as the Packers stumbled to 1-2, and oddsmakers have continued shading away from Green Bay as the offensive line horror stories piled up — the Packers’ odds to win the NFC North have drifted out to the +240 range, and their Super Bowl price has lengthened to roughly +2000, both notably worse than where the market had them entering training camp.
The flurry of offensive line additions signals that Green Bay views its protection problems as fixable in-season rather than a structural issue the front office is willing to live with, and the betting market will be watching closely to see whether Zeitler, Tomlinson or Becton can stabilize the interior. Any real improvement in pass protection would be most visible in Love’s passing props — his yardage and touchdown numbers have taken a clear hit under duress this year — and in game totals, given that a competent offensive line unlocks the downfield passing attack that made Green Bay one of the league’s higher-scoring offenses last season. Until the protection shows tangible signs of life, expect the Packers to keep trading in the range of a middling playoff contender rather than the division favorite many bettors backed over the summer.
