Packers sign former 1st-round tackle ahead of 2024 NFL Draft

Packers sign former 1st-round tackle ahead of 2024 NFL Draft

On Thursday, the Green Bay Packers announced that they had signed offensive tackle Andre Dillard. Dillard, a 2019 first-round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles, was selected one pick after the Packers drafted safety Darnell Savage in that class.

In four years with the Eagles, Dillard only managed to start nine games for the team, as seventh-round pick Jordan Mailata developed into the franchise’s left tackle while Lane Johnson held down the fort on the right side. As a free agent in 2023, Dillard signed a three-year, $29 million contract with the Tennessee Titans, who he played for last season. In the first nine weeks of the season, Dillard made eight starts for the Titans before being benched. He returned to the starting lineup in Week 17 and 18, playing 56 percent of Tennessee’s total offensive snaps.

According to Pro Football Focus, Dillard played a total of 1,212 snaps at left tackle during his NFL career, 40 snaps at left guard, 36 snaps at right tackle and 16 snaps at right guard. Excluding his missed 2020 season, due to a torn biceps, his offensive grades from the analytics company were 61.2 (2019), 69.6 (2021), 58.3 (2022) and 52.8 (2023). Interestingly enough, his best grade came in 2022, when he was given an 84.7 pass-blocking grade on just 11 snaps.

The Packers have seemed to have their eye on Dillard for a while, as they brought him in as a pre-draft visit in 2019, the same year they drafted fellow visitors Jace Sternberger and Ka’dar Hollman. In the pre-draft process, Dillard ran a sub-5-second 40-yard dash at 6’5” and 315 pounds. He also ran elite short shuttle and three-cone numbers, which generally is what the Packers are looking for in offensive line prospects — beyond a tackle background.

The addition of Dillard gives the Packers much-needed tackle depth going into next week’s NFL Draft. Green Bay has a core five of Rasheed Walker, Elgton Jenkins, Josh Myers, Sean Rhyan and Zach Tom on the offensive line, but very little depth behind them. The Packers typically carry 10 offensive linemen, but only have nine on the roster currently. Behind the projected starters are Royce Newman, Luke Tenuta, Caleb Jones and Kadeem Telfort. The only backup with any sort of extended playing experience at the NFL level is Newman, who now commands a $3 million non-guaranteed salary in the final year of his rookie deal due to the league’s proven performance escalator. This makes a release of Newman one of the few ways that the Packers can actually clear a decent amount of cap space this offseason.

At the moment, there has been no indication of how many years Dillard signed for or how much he’s going to get paid.