Cheesehead
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- Mar 19, 2019
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GREEN BAY – A scout for the southeast region at the time, Brian Gutekunst was pretty sure Josh Sitton was going to make it as an NFL player.
It took all of one day in pads in his rookie training camp to confirm it.
“He’s one of the better offensive linemen I’ve ever scouted,” said Gutekunst, now Green Bay’s general manager, as he introduced Sitton on Friday for the offensive lineman’s official retirement as a member of the Packers. “He’s one of the players that put me on the map. I really fought for Josh in the draft room.
“When he came in here, about the third rep of his Packer career, we knew we had a good one and we knew he was going to be a good one for a long time.”
Drafted in the fourth round in 2008 out of Central Florida, Sitton went on to play eight seasons at guard for the Packers, earning Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro recognition three times each. From 2009-15, he started the most games by a Packers offensive lineman (110), finishing with 125 total starts in Green Bay (112 regular season, 13 postseason).
Sitton didn’t believe all that was in his future during his rookie offseason, though. The big-bodied guard didn’t feel he got off to a great start in the spring, but when the pads went on in August, his abilities really started to show.
That “third rep” Gutekunst referred to, Sitton pegged it from the one-on-one pass-blocking drill in training camp, and he thought it might have come against defensive lineman Cullen Jenkins. (“We’ll call it Cullen,” Sitton joked. “He was pretty good.”)
Holding his own against a veteran pass rusher in a full-contact drill was just the boost of confidence Sitton needed, especially after not getting invited to the Senior Bowl or NFL Scouting Combine.
“That was the moment I said, OK, I think I’m going to be around for a while,” he said.