Packers pull the trigger on a proven answer after their biggest roster problem showed no signs of going away
Kevin Zeitler signed a one-year deal directly to the active roster after a visit on Tuesday, and Green Bay’s early results at the position explain the urgency.
The Green Bay Packers have finally signed veteran guard Kevin Zeitler to their active 53-man roster, a move designed to address the team’s most pressing roster issue of the 2026 season. Zeitler visited the Packers on Tuesday, as the league’s personnel notice showed, and now the signing is official. He agreed to a one-year deal and will play for Green Bay through the rest of the season.
Zeitler has been in the NFL since 2012, and his experience is exactly what the Packers’ offensive line needs. Throughout his career, he has played 13,985 snaps at right guard, the kind of résumé Green Bay hasn’t had at the position in a long time.
A problem since Day 1 for the offense
The Packers have cycled through a multitude of right guards since they moved on from TJ Lang. Over the past few years, the position has been a recurring issue. In 2026, though, it has been a major problem from the very beginning.
Even if the entire roster had been healthy, Jacob Monk would have been the preferred starter at right guard in Week 1. That alone shows how thin the position was for the Packers entering the regular season.
The results haven’t been encouraging. Monk has allowed 11 pressures through the first three weeks of the regular season. In comparison, Zeitler gave up only 16 pressures during the entire 2025 season with the Tennessee Titans, and he played more than 900 snaps to get there.
Monk was on pace to surpass Zeitler’s full-season total within a few more games, and Green Bay can’t afford that kind of leakage in front of its quarterback.
Roster situation
There was a real question about whether Zeitler would want to return to football at all. He had been in a semi-retired state, and it wasn’t clear if a contender could convince him to come back. Nonetheless, he agreed to join the Packers. The signing works on both ends. Green Bay gets an immediate plug-and-play option, and Zeitler gets a meaningful role on a team that needs him.
The front office has been aggressive in trying to bring competent veterans to the interior of the line. Green Bay also signed Laken Tomlinson off the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad. Additionally, the Packers added Mekhi Becton to their own practice squad. Becton has played for the Philadelphia Eagles, New York Jets, and Los Angeles Chargers, and he brings another experienced body to the offensive line room.
That’s a lot of change in a short period of time. But the pattern is clear, and the Packers badly want to solve their offensive line issue. So, they are willing to bring in multiple veterans to do it rather than wait for young players to develop in the middle of the season.
Zeitler is the headliner of that effort. If he plays anywhere close to his 2025 level, the Packers finally have an answer at a position that has given them headaches since Lang left a decade ago, and it comes from a player who wasn’t even sure he wanted to keep playing.
