I'm still surprised he wasn't drafted, as teams often over draft OTs with great potential physical attributes which Nijman had... but in other drafts, guys were selected high in the 5th round that were clearly raw as hell and still drafted based on physical potential, but Nijman surprisingly wasn't.
I will say, I feel like the OL is being a bit overrated as we're still judging them based on MM's standard which put on freaking huge pressure on the OL, in comparison this Wide Zone scheme from LaFleur does a much better job of looking at how can we take pressure off of guys.
Also last year, Rodgers did a freaking amazing job of buying into the system and knowing he didn't have the A group of OL out there and probably got the ball out of his hands faster than any other Rodgers year and played more into the LaFleur check down system (though they hate the term check down, but short quick throw, whatever...).
So no, I don't believe the OL deserve as much praise as they're getting as the scheme, QB and Adams ability to get open extremely quickly, extremely helped them...
But Nijman does deserve praise, from the perspective of he came in with a ton of physical potential, which was totally undeveloped... which players like that, normally stay undeveloped... Nijman had been slowly improving each year so far. He can still develop a lot more, but so far, he's improving each year.
And Bak has public said Nijman clearly has the best feet of the Packers OL.
That being said, I think we can all agree he's not as good as others, so there are other areas Nijman needs to catch-up on. He's a work in progress, which is a huge improvement of being raw as hell when he got here. Like I said, most of those guys never improve...
And that's why I didn't want LT Jason Springs in the first round when he was coming out... on paper, he looked like he should be a 1st rounder, as he had been a great four year starter, and had some great battles holding his own against some of the best college pass rushers. But when you looked at his entire career, Springs was basically as good as a Sophomore as he was a Senior in college... he was a four year starter, whom stopped improving and two year starters was just as or more developed than him in the small stuff. And when college guys go a long time without improving, that scares me from a draft perspective.
Of course, some players just don't grow in college like they should, because they're too busy focusing on other things, like school and then sometimes grow a lot more once they can focus on sports full time, which these area extremely hard to tell.
Also partying, but they would have to then stop or limit the partying in the NFL to improve, which is my understanding happened to TJ Lang. He kept partying, until his 4th year, where Josh Sitton, best friends, Sitton had a tough conversation with Lang, basically saying he sees the potential and there is a starting OL spot open, but if he doesn't start taking the NFL seriously and party less, then he'll soon be on a new team... and that offseason, Lang listened and suddenly became a hell lot better and a quality starter.