Packers Are Tall, Heavy and Old (By Their Standards)

Here's what the NFL's annual analysis of Week 1 rosters says about the Green Bay Packers.
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – The average member of the Green Bay Packers shops at the NFL’s Big and Tall Store.

According to an NFL analysis of Week 1 rosters, the Packers have one of the biggest and tallest teams in the league. The average member of the Packers stands 6.23 feet tall and weighs 248.24 pounds. That means Green Bay has the tallest and heaviest roster in the NFC. Only the Indianapolis Colts (6.24) are taller and only the Baltimore Ravens (250.33) are heavier.

The Packers have seven players who are less than 200 pounds; only Tennessee (six) has less. They have 13 players who are 300-plus pounds; only the Giants (14) have more.

As assembled by general manager Brian Gutekunst, Green Bay’s roster is a bit younger than the league average but quite a bit older than usual. The average member of the Packers is 25.96 years old; the league average is 26.08.

Still, this is noteworthy: Dating to 2005, the first season for then-general manager Ted Thompson, the Packers had ranked outside the league’s 10 youngest teams just once – and barely so, with the 2017 team being the 11th-youngest. This year’s team is the 16th-youngest. Only the 2005 team was older that this year’s team.

Aaron Rodgers, Marcedes Lewis and Mason Crosby are 38, skewing the figure a bit. Green Bay has 13 rookies/first-year players – only Chicago (16) has more. It has six players who are 30 or older, less than the NFL average of 7.44.

All 11 of Gutekunst’s draft picks made the roster.

“Maybe we got them right? We’ll see,” he said after picking his 53-man roster. “It’s very early in their career. I think we bring players onto this team in all different ways, and we’re not really concerned how they get here. It’s just what they do when they get here. So, I’m excited for those guys. It’s early in their career. I think there’s going to be some guys in that class that really impact us this year and help us and I’m sure there’s other guys that are going to take a little while to develop. But we’ll see how it goes.”

The Detroit Lions are the NFL’s youngest team by age (25.07) and experience (3.41). They have a league-low one player in the 30-and-over club. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the oldest team by age (27.15) and experience (5.41). They have a league-high 13 players who are 30-plus.

Packers Trending Older

Here are the average ages for the Packers, by season, since 2005 (with how they ranked among the NFL’s youngest teams):

2005 — 26.19 (9th-tied)

2006 — 25.57 (1st)

2007 — 25.72 (1st)

2008 — 25.57 (1st-tied)

2009 — 25.70 (1st)

2010 — 25.92 (5th)

2011 — 25.74 (3rd-tied)

2012 — 25.70 (6th)

2013 — 25.64 (9th)

2014 — 25.75 (8th)

2015 — 25.23 (2nd)

2016 — 25.55 (5th)

2017 — 25.81 (11th)

2018 — 25.74 (10th-tied)

2019 – 25.58 (6th-tied)

2020 – 25.51 (6th)

2021 – 25.74 (10th)

2022 – 25.96 (16th)


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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.