Packers, No Longer Forever Young, Hit Middle Age

The Green Bay Packers, generally one of the youngest teams in the NFL, will field an older roster than usual.

Bill Huber | Sep 1, 2021

GREEN BAY, Wis. – For years, the Green Bay Packers have fielded one of the youngest rosters in the NFL.

Not this year.

As he’s done for the last several years for the Philly Voice, Eagles beat writer Jimmy Kempski pulled out his trusty abacus and calculated the average age for every team’s 53-man roster.

With general manager Brian Gutekunst assembling a team that’s built to win now, the Packers have the 15th-youngest roster in the NFL with an average age of 25.7 years. They were among the 10 youngest teams in seven of the previous eight seasons.

According to Kempski, 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). Before that, the team was really young. It was the third-youngest in 2016 (25.4) and 2015 (25.5) and sixth-youngest in 2014 (25.6) and 2013 (25.4).

Led by quarterback Aaron Rodgers and tight end Marcedes Lewis, who are 37, the Packers have five players older than age 30. Offensive tackle Billy Turner will join kicker Mason Crosby (36), offensive tackle Dennis Kelly (31) and receiver Randall Cobb (31) in the 30-and-over group on Oct. 17.

All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari, who will turn 30 on Sept. 30, isn’t on the 53-man roster so isn’t part of the average.

Eight of the team’s nine draft picks made the roster, as did undrafted free agent Jack Heflin, to give the team nine rookies on its 53-man roster. However, most of last year’s roster returned and, obviously, aged a year. Plus, the additions of Cobb, Kelly and linebacker De’Vondre Campbell (28) helped offset the influx of young players.

The New York Jets are the youngest team in the NFL, followed by the Detroit Lions. The Chicago Bears are the oldest team.

CLICK HERE for the full breakdown.

Published Sep 1, 2021

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.