Do Packers, NFL’s Youngest Team, Need to Add Experience?

Time and again this season, the Green Bay Packers weren’t ready for the moment in the biggest games.
It was a one-and-done playoffs for the Packers, who lost their wild-card matchup at the Eagles on Sunday.
It was a one-and-done playoffs for the Packers, who lost their wild-card matchup at the Eagles on Sunday. / Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Last year, the Green Bay Packers were the youngest team to reach the playoffs in 45 years. This year’s team was the second-youngest.

After getting knocked out of the playoffs by the Eagles on Sunday, do the Packers need to add to their base of veterans?

“No, I wouldn’t say that,” coach Matt LaFleur said during his season-ending news conference on Tuesday. “That’s just a number to me. I just think you, obviously, want as many good players as you can get, and whether that guy is 22 years old or 32 years old, I don’t think it really, truly matters.”

It's probably just a coincidence, but four of the five youngest teams in the playoff field didn’t get out of wild-card weekend.

The team’s youth is not an excuse, Keisean Nixon said. Nixon just completed his sixth NFL season; only McManus (11), Kenny Clark (nine) and Eric Wilson (eight) have more experience.

“You can’t think of it like that,” Nixon said on Monday. “At the end of the day, we’re grown men. We’ve got to play football. It’s just like a 17-year-old coming to college and you’ve got to play against guys who’ve been in college six years. That doesn’t matter.”

The Packers made two big splashes in free agency last offseason, signing safety Xavier McKinney and running back Josh Jacobs, though they in essence replaced other veteran players – Darnell Savage and Jonathan Owens in the case of McKinney and Aaron Jones in the case of Jacobs.

About the only position where the Packers got notably older was at kicker, where they signed Brandon McManus after giving up on rookie Brayden Narveson.

“There’s always something to say for experience,” LaFleur continued. “Being in those big moments and being in the playoffs with two years in a row with that crew, I think there’s a lot of experience that comes along with that.”

That experience didn’t mean a hill of beans against the Eagles on Sunday, just like it didn’t matter in getting swept by the NFC North-rival Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions.

Time and again in big games, this year’s Packers started slowly, fought to stay in the game but couldn’t make the big play necessary to win.

“We’ve got to play better in those moments,” LaFleur said. “We can’t have the critical turnovers. We need everybody on the details.

“I said this to our team yesterday, but the details usually is what separates. It separates good from great, and we have got to be on top of our details, everybody doing their individual whatever they’re asked to do. They’ve got to do their one-eleventh at a high level, otherwise it’s hard to win those games.”

Average Age of NFL Playoff Rosters

These ages were computed by Bookies.com one day after the end of the regular season. Teams in bold are still alive in the playoffs.

1. Green Bay Packers: 25 years, 9 months, 6 days

2. Denver Broncos: 26 years, 2 months, 17 days

3. Los Angeles Rams: 26 years, 3 months, 17 days

4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 26 years, 9 months, 12 days

5. Los Angeles Chargers: 26 years, 10 months, 17 days

6. Kansas City Chiefs: 26 years, 11 months, 17 days

-- Average age of 14 playoff rosters: 27 years, 0 months, 6 days --

7. Baltimore Ravens: 27 years, 1 month, 20 days

8. Houston Texans: 27 years, 2 months, 25 days

9. Detroit Lions: 27 years, 3 months, 8 days

10. Philadelphia Eagles: 27 years, 3 months, 20 days

11. Buffalo Bills: 27 years, 4 months, 12 days

12. Pittsburgh Steelers: 27 years, 10 months, 18 days

13. Minnesota Vikings: 28 years, 0 months, 4 days

14. Washington Commanders: 28 years, 1 month, 2 days

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.