Packers draft pick profiles: Jager Burton a versatile future starter

The Stats

Burton’s college career did not go as he or others may have expected as he bounced around different positions and did not play up to his recruiting reputation, but he did improve each year and finished strong.

His first starts came at left guard, where he spent the entire 2022 season and received PFF grades of 47.5 as a run blocker and 49.5 in pass protection (60 is average). He allowed six sacks, four quarterback hits and five hurries that year.

In 2023 he started the first three games at center but was then moved to right guard for the remainder of the year and ended with PFF grades of 46.1 in the run game and 60.6 in pass pro, allowing one sack (a big improvement), four QB hits and nine hurries.

Burton moved back to left guard in 2024 and earned PFF grades of 56.9 in run blocking and 69.9 in the pass game. His overall pressures cut in half down to seven, comprising two sacks, one QB hit and four hurries. He did miss two games due to injury.

He transitioned back to center for his final season and had by far his best year, posting grades of 67.5 in the run game and 79.5 in pass pro, allowing zero sacks or QB hits, and 12 hurries. Burton ranked 33rd among 75 draft eligible centers in PFF’s pass block efficiency metric in 2025.

The Athletic’s Dane Brugler wrote in his draft guide that Burton: “Showed newfound confidence as a senior” and an NFL scout told him: “Staff said he was the ringleader getting the O-line room together, in and out of the building."

On what attracted the Packers to Burton, director of college scouting Matt Malaspina said: “He’s got really good size, speed, flexibility, toughness, the traits you look for in an offensive linemen. He played well at guard, he played well at center, he’s a big man, it wasn’t that hard to figure out."

The Tape

The athleticism Burton has does not just show up in the testing, but more importantly, on the football field. His movement skills are superb and mean he excels when asked to pull or get out into space.

He can pull around the corner or get up to the second level and lay hits on linebackers to clear run lanes, and is effective blocking on outside runs while moving laterally, keeping himself between defender and the ball. He also sells and moves well on screens.

First step quickness is a trait usually discussed with defensive linemen, but Burton has it on the offensive side. The speed at which he fires laterally off the ball in the run game and gets to his spot to block opponents is remarkable, and helps him get in position to turn and wall them off.

In pass protection, Burton’s feet are the star. He moves them smoothly and easily, and keeps them firing to mirror and redirect with defenders all day long. It is rare to see him panicked or off kilter in pass pro due to the sound foundation his feet provide.

His ability to redirect helps him push opponents towards his guard help if they try to cross his face, and he does a nice job generally of shoving guys out of harm's way or into the mass of bodies.

Burton showed he can rework his hands or fight with opponents to keep them off him and stay in charge of the rep. He will fire one hand at defenders and still be able to stay in control, keeping the other one free. His hands stay tucked inside and it is rare for them to get too wide.

He is able to hold up for a long time in pass pro if required and consistently stalemates reps (in a good way) and plays with good knee bend, rather than bending at the waist.

While he is not super powerful, it is uncommon to see him be truly driven or knocked back. At times it seems like there is an invisible 10-foot wall right behind his back which he cannot go beyond. Defenders will smash into him unexpectedly late in the play and still not move him.

In the run game, Burton turns towards defenders laterally off the snap and engages with good leverage, staying low and driving, keeping his legs churning. He is more effective on double teams but is capable of displacing opponents on his own.

Rather than pushing guys back off the ball, he is better moving guys laterally to open lanes, as he is able to wrestle to twist and turn them, or firing across to drive and clear them out. When the game plan calls for him to regularly get to a spot and wall defenders out, he is more than capable.

Burton plays with high effort and strain, looking for work to the whistle. He is a ‘by any means necessary’ kind of guy, a survivor and a battler, getting the job done even if it does not always look pretty. If he has to put his helmet in a defender’s chest and hang on for dear life, he will do so.

He does a nice job of just getting his body in the way of multiple defenders, not letting them through and clogging up potential entry points into the backfield.

His intelligence is noticeable in his ability to quickly pick up new assignments on twists and stunts, and he seems to turn his head instantly to the correct assignment off the snap even if the picture immediately changes. Burton consistently is, or gets where he is supposed to be.

Malaspina summed it up well: “He always does his job, he does it at a comfort level, not a panic level."

On the negative side, Burton’s biggest issue is that he lacks difference-making power, and it shows up in both phases.

Some of the draft class’s bigger defensive tackles like Darrell Jackson and Christen Miller gave him trouble in pass protection. He lets opponents into his chest and can give up too much ground to bull rushes from there, although he mostly overcomes it.

If a defender is barrelling through a gap between him and his guard, he is often unable to slow their momentum or wash them out of the play.

His hands lack ammunition when he lands them, they are more placed onto opponents, and he can be shed late in the rep, especially if he gets in a compromised position where he is essentially chest to chest with a defender, as they can swing him around from there or pull him down.

Burton lacks the power to really drive people off the ball in the run game or finish them, despite getting them covered up consistently. Being a stalemate player in the run game is not a positive for an O-linemen, and it brings into question whether he can really play guard or is a center only.

He can struggle to stop defenders working towards the ball in the run game when engaged with them, and just does not control blocks, allowing opponents to slip off or shed him late. Burton is better weaponized on the move in the run game rather than blocking straight up.

When he gets to the second level, Burton does not truly punish lighter defenders or decisively clear them out the way. He can overshoot his landmark when targeting a defender in space, plays over his toes, especially when going on the move, and ends up on the ground quite a lot.

Burton has a bad habit of ducking his head and lunging at opponents, causing him to slip off or completely miss blocks.

Although he clearly has the mental ability to play center, there are still lapses. If stunts come later in the rep he can fail to spot them or react in time. Against Texas in 2025, two mugging linebackers dropped out and he did not even notice a blitzer who went right past him into the backfield.

Brugler noted in his draft guide that Burton’s mental mistakes decreased in 2025, but it is still an area that needs to be addressed. He did have one high snap in the games I watched, although that is hardly a reason for concern across six games of tape.

It is concerning that as an older player and a big time recruit, it took Burton until his final season as a 23-year old to put in the kind of performances that made him a serious NFL prospect. Per Brugler: “He has played a lot of football but has just one season of NFL-worthy tape."

He added: “The biggest wild card for his NFL transition is the consistency of his confidence and calls/adjustments." There will be a learning curve for Burton at the next level, and after overcoming confidence issues in college, he will need to remain mentally resilient to handle adversity.

Overall, regardless of what happened before 2025, the tape from this season shows a potential starting center with rare movement skills, plus intelligence, solid technique and the ability to scrap and claw that is needed on the interior. He could easily have been drafted a round or two earlier and may prove to be a big hit for the Packers in the future.

This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: Packers draft pick profiles: Jager Burton a versatile future starter