Packer Central

Packers Are Young – Really Young – After Roster Cuts

With 14 rookies on the initial 53-man roster, the Green Bay Packers have become much younger entering the 2023 NFL season. Just how young? Here are the numbers.

Bill Huber

Packers Are Young – Really Young – After Roster Cuts
Packers Are Young – Really Young – After Roster Cuts /
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Out with the old and in with the new. From quarterback to kicker, that was Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst’s personnel objective. The proof is in the post-cuts pudding.

Following Tuesday’s roster cutdown, the Packers have the youngest roster in the NFL, according to the annual breakdown down by The Philly Voice’s Jimmy Kempski.

Based on the initial 53-man rosters, the average member of the Packers is 25.0 years old. The Los Angeles Rams (25.3), Cincinnati Bengals (25.4) and Indianapolis Colts (25.4) round out the top four.

“I don’t know if it was intentional to be young,” Gutekunst said on Wednesday. “I think our intention was to be athletic, fast and have a really competitive camp so that the best guys rose to the top, and I think that’s what we accomplished. But it wasn’t just to be young.”

With rosters in flux over the next couple weeks, the NFL will do a league-wide look following Week 1.

The Packers ranked 21st in last year’s post-cuts analysis with an average age of 25.9 and 15th in 2021 with an average age of 25.7. Prior to that, they ranked among the 10 youngest teams seven of the previous eight seasons. According to Kempski’s annual breakdown, the Packers’ roster was the fifth-youngest in 2020 (25.5) and 2019 (25.5), 10th-youngest in 2018 (25.7) and 11th-youngest in 2017 (25.7).

Malik Heath, Anthony Johnson, Carrington Valentine
Rookies (from left) Malik Heath, Anthony Johnson, Carrington Valentine (Photo by Kareem Elgazzar/USA Today Sports Images)

The 2023 team goes back to the late Ted Thompson’s roots. The Packers were the third-youngest in 2016 (25.4) and 2015 (25.5) and sixth-youngest in 2014 (25.6) and 2013 (25.4).

Green Bay will open the 2023 NFL season at Chicago; the Bears are the 10th-youngest at 25.7. In Week 2, the Packers will visit Atlanta; the Falcons are 23rd with an average age of 26.2. The home opener will come in Week 3 against New Orleans; the Saints have the oldest roster with an average age of 27.4.

In the NFC North, the Bears are 10th, the Detroit Lions are 11th (25.7) and the Minnesota Vikings are 17th (25.9).

Green Bay’s roster features 15 players who’ve never been on a regular-season roster. Eleven of the 13 draft picks survived the cut, along with three undrafted rookies and punter Daniel Whelan. Rookie cornerback Carrington Valentine is the youngest player at age 21. Rookie tight ends Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft are among six players who are 22. Another 10 players are 23, including second-year starters Romeo Doubs and Quay Walker.

On the other end of the spectrum, De’Vondre Campbell and Preston Smith are 30 and David Bakhtiari (31) is the only player older than 30.

More Green Bay Packers News

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Eric Stokes on PUP … Huge move at safety … Alex McGough released

Good news for undrafted rookies? … Good news for injured lineman?

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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.

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