ss BREAKING: Packers’ 2025 Rookie Remains Benched Through Ten Weeks for Breaking Team Rules!
The Green Bay Packers’ highly touted second-round pick has yet to take a single snap in the 2025 NFL season through ten weeks — and now head coach Matt LaFleur has explained why.
Despite joining the Packers with massive expectations, the rookie offensive tackle has been stuck on the sideline, as a disciplinary decision from the coaching staff continues to keep him out of uniform on game day.
“He’s got talent, no doubt,” LaFleur said during Friday’s press conference. “But in Green Bay, discipline defines who gets on the field. He missed reads, skipped assignments, and didn’t prepare the way we demand. Around here, you don’t play because you’re gifted — you play because you’re ready to be a Packer.”
The rookie in question is Anthony Belton, a 6-foot-6, 336-pound offensive tackle out of NC State, drafted by the Packers in the second round (54th overall) of the 2025 NFL Draft.
Belton signed a four-year rookie contract in mid-July 2025, including a multi-million–dollar signing bonus. The deal was finalized later than most of the rookie class, after several weeks of negotiations. By the time training camp opened, Belton was viewed as a strong candidate to compete for snaps on the edge of the offensive line.
However, according to team insiders, the Packers’ coaching staff gradually lost patience with Belton’s lack of attention to detail. Reports indicate he missed key blocking assignments, failed to thoroughly study protection schemes, and did not show the level of mental focus that a high-level NFL lineman in LaFleur’s system is expected to have.
Since continuing to build the Packers in the Jordan Love era, LaFleur has consistently emphasized that his vision in Green Bay is built on accountability and preparation — not just potential.
“We’re establishing a standard here,” he added. “If you’re not locked in, if you’re not giving full effort in practice, then you’re not ready to represent this team on Sundays.”
At this point, Belton remains off the active gameday list each week, focusing instead on improving his discipline and command of the playbook under the direct guidance of offensive line coach Luke Butkus. While the team still believes in his long-term upside, the coaches have stressed that earning trust has to come before earning snaps.
Belton’s combination of size, strength, and movement skills still makes him a key piece of Green Bay’s future. But in a locker room being reshaped under LaFleur’s leadership, every player — from rookie to veteran — has to prove they live up to the “Packer standard.”
As LaFleur summed it up bluntly: “Talent gets you drafted. But discipline — that’s what earns you the right to play for the Green Bay Packers.”
