Mark Tauscher, who has manned the starting spot at right tackle since breaking into the league with his home-state team in 2000, is out for the rest of the season after he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee Sunday.

Head coach Mike McCarthy confirmed the severity of the injury at his day-after-game news conference Monday.

"Just talking with (team) Dr. (Pat) McKenzie, the focus on Mark right now is to get the swelling out of there and hopefully operate by next week," McCarthy said.

The injury occurred early in the second quarter of the Packers' 24-21 loss to the Houston Texans at Lambeau Field. Tauscher went down in a pass-blocking situation.

McCarthy couldn't discern from film review Monday how the injury occurred.

"I just know the communication when he came off (the field), he knew," McCarthy said. "He's done it before. It's the same knee that he hurt before," when he also had a torn ACL that cost him all but the first two games of the 2002 season.

Tauscher, a workhorse who started 120 regular-season games the past nine years, likely will need six to nine months of recovery and rehab time before returning to the football field. That means he may not be ready until training camp next summer.

Whether he'll remain with the Packers is unclear. Tauscher is a free agent after this season, and there's been no indications that the team is set on bringing the 31-year-old back as a starter.

"He's lined up, and he's done everything we've asked," McCarthy said. "Very steady person, has an excellent disposition for the position and really for our football team, just consistent through and through. As far as his future (with the team), time will answer that."

With the 5-8 Packers barely in contention for the NFC North title and a berth in the playoffs thanks to a three-game losing streak, they'll possibly be playing for the future in the final three games of the regular season.

McCarthy suggested Monday that Tony Moll, who filled in for Tauscher on Sunday, would be the starter for Sunday's game at the Jacksonville Jaguars but didn't rule out shaking up the line with a host of young players.

Left guard Daryn Colledge, who had a poor performance against the Texans, has experience as a tackle and could be moved to Tauscher's spot. That could lead to moving right guard Jason Spitz to left guard and plugging in rookie Josh Sitton at right guard, or keeping Spitz at right guard and putting Allen Barbre at left guard.

"We're going to play the best people available, and if we played the game (against Jacksonville) today, we'd go right back out there with Tony at right tackle," McCarthy said. "We haven't really discussed specifics on Jacksonville, how we'll go forward this week, but we're going to do everything possible to win the game in Jacksonville. That's our mindset."

McCarthy said Moll did an "OK" job Sunday. Moll was called for a huge, though questionable, holding penalty against Texans defensive end Mario Williams that helped move the Packers out of field-goal range late in the game when the score was tied 21-21. Houston forced a punt and drove down field to win the game on a 40-yard field goal by Kris Brown as time expired.