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- Mar 19, 2019
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"We'll get him with the position coaches and get him going," Sullivan said. "There's no need to try and pencil him into one or the other today, but regardless of where he ends up, we feel good about it."
Newman's body type strikes Sullivan initially as that of a guard, which in some ways made his play at tackle last season all the more impressive. According to his bio on the school's website, he allowed only two sacks in 430 pass-blocking snaps in 2020.
The transition wasn't easy, but it's experience that should serve Newman well wherever his career goes from here.
"In the interior, it's a lot of huge, 330-pound guys who have pretty quick twitch, so (you focus on) just kind of getting your hands on them," Newman said. "You've got a little more room with the center help or the tackle help or something like that.
"Then when I moved out to tackle, I was kind of on an island all by myself and just really had to know how to set square, get more technical, and get used to the speed guys instead of the real big guys."
With some uncertainty up front for the Packers heading into 2021 due to All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari's return from ACL surgery, Newman could get a chance to stay at right tackle and play right away.
Or, he could compete at guard, while the Packers' more experienced (and equally versatile) linemen hold the fort at tackle. Second-round pick Josh Myers from Ohio State is considered a possibility at both center and guard, and the Packers have three interior linemen from last year's draft in the mix as well.
"We like the options," Sullivan said. "Big guys are hard to find. Everybody knows that. You don't have to be in the scouting profession to know finding big guys who are worth their salt and can go play winning football, that's tough. That's hard to do.
"We felt like we needed to add some depth, add some competition. We're really excited about the guys we got."