Aaron Rodgers is having an outstanding season at the quarterback position. But before Rodgers asserted himself with authority into the MVP conversation this past week, one could have easily made the argument that the Packers’ best offensive player so far this season was not Aaron Rodgers, or even David Bakhtiari or Aaron Jones.
It was Bryan Bulaga, in his 10th year in the NFL.
Yes, Bulaga has quietly been having an outstanding year along the line so far. Yet if it were up to many Twitter pundits this offseason, he never would have been given the opportunity.
One of the oddest phenomena to me over the last offseason was the sheer number of people (both analysts and fans alike) on Twitter who advocated for the release of Bulaga this offseason, due to his combination of age and contract value. Go back and search tweets from throughout the spring and summer, and you'll find plenty of examples.
Bulaga is 30 years old, but has a lot of wear and tear on his body after 10 years in the league. He has a cap hit of $8,350,000 this season versus a dead cap penalty of just $1,850,000 that the team would have incurred with his release. And this is the final season of his contract.
Despite his recent injury history, Bulaga has still been a reliable player when he’s been on the field. It would have made very little sense to let Bulaga go before his contract expired, especially given the question marks at the tackle position coming into this season.
It would have been much easier to persuade me that Bulaga should have been allowed to walk after this season, if the Packers took a possible replacement in the draft. But now, Bulaga has become one of a couple players the Packers need to begin serious contract extension discussions with, as he is having a career year.

A career year
There aren’t as many statistics to consider when talking about offensive linemen as there are with other positions, which can make comparing across seasons a bit difficult. But the concrete data that is available shows just how well Bulaga is playing this season.
Through seven games, Bulaga has yet to allow a single sack or quarterback hit. He’s only allowed nine total hurries, for a total of nine pressures (a combination of sacks, hits and hurries). Pro Football Focus gives him a pass blocking grade of 79.9, which would rate among the finest seasons of his career.
It is the run blocking where Bulaga has been noticeably better this season, better than most years in his career. And credit has to be given to the Matt LaFleur offense here, which has significantly revamped the running game. PFF rates Bulaga at a 74.1 rating, which is better than every year of his career except his 2011 season, and a big step up from the last three or four seasons in particular.
While Bakhtiari grades out slightly better than Bulaga in the passing game, Bulaga significantly outgrades Bakhtiari in the running game, which makes sense—a keen watcher will discern Bulaga has been clearly the best offensive lineman on the team this season, and that’s on a line that has been playing quite well overall.
Across the league, Bulaga grades out in the top 10 tackles in the league for run blocking and just outside the top 10 in pass blocking. That’s out of 108 players who have taken snaps at the tackle position this season in the NFL. And the only right tackle consistently grading around Bulaga’s level is Tyler Morton of the Carolina Panthers. There’s a very strong argument yet again that Bulaga Is the league’s best right tackle.

Earning a new deal
There will still undoubtedly be those naysayers who point to Bulaga’s age and injury history as reasons to let him walk, but Bulaga’s level of play this season is irreplaceable.
Bulaga may have logged 10 years in the league and plenty of battle wounds, but he’s still just 30 years old. There are plenty of other linemen in the league still going strong into their mid to late 30s.
Take 37-year-old, 15-year vet Jason Peters of the Philadelphia Eagles, who continues to grade out among the top tackles in the league. Peters signed a one-year deal with the Eagles this year worth nearly $8.7 million, more than what Bulaga is making this season.
There’s also 35-year-old Joe Staley in his 13th year with the San Francisco 49ers, also consistently grading out among the best tackles in the league still at this stage of his career. The 49ers signed him to a new two-year extension worth $28 million, and he’s getting $14.7 million this year in the final year of his existing contract.  
Both of these guys are playing left tackle, so they’re going to command more money on the market than Bulaga likely would. Both are further along in their careers than Bulaga, but their teams have rewarded them for continuing to play at high levels.
The Packers will have the capacity to bring back Bulaga if they want for another year. The team will also have to make space to sign defensive tackle Kenny Clark, and likely interior linebacker Blake Martinez. Getting all three back may be tough with the current cap space, but offloading the contracts of Lane Taylor and Jimmy Graham (both of whom would be likely cap casualties in 2020, in my estimation) would give them more than enough room to make it work.
If I’m Brian Gutekunst and Russ Ball, I’m starting to have serious discussions now about extending Bulaga before he can hit the free agent market in March. He’s simply playing at too high a level to let him hit the street.

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