Packers Roster Is More Than Just NFL’s Youngest

The Green Bay Packers officially have retained the mantle as the league’s youngest team. Here is the NFL’s annual breakdown of Week 1 rosters based on age, experience, height and weight.

Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst watches the Family Night practice on August 3 at Lambeau Field. / Tork Mason / USA TODAY NETWORK

GREEN BAY, Wis. – In a tale as old as time, the Green Bay Packers once again have the NFL’s youngest roster. But this roster is incredibly young, even by their standards.

In an annual study of Week 1 rosters conducted by the NFL, the Packers for the second consecutive year have the youngest team in the league. This year’s team is the youngest since the 2017 Cleveland Browns.

Here is a look at the Week 1 rosters.

Packers Are Youngest Team Again

No matter how you slice it, the Packers are young.

By age: The average Packers player is 24.91 years old. Even with last year’s youngest-in-the-league roster having gained a season of seasoning, that’s still 0.22 years younger than last year.

That team was Green Bay’s youngest in at least 20 years. This team is the youngest since the 2017 Browns’ average of 24.17.

The Los Angeles Rams and Detroit Lions have the next-youngest rosters at 25.32 and 25.38, respectively. The AFC’s youngest team is Jacksonville at 25.59. So, the Packers are the youngest team in the league by a wide margin.

The average NFL player is 26.21 years old. In the NFC, the San Francisco 49ers are tied with the Miami Dolphins for the oldest in the league at 27.07. The Minnesota Vikings’ average is 27.04 and the Chicago Bears’ average is 26.40.

The Packers’ average age when the NFL ran the numbers before Week 2 in 2023 was 25.13. The Bengals were a distant second at 25.42. That was a difference of 0.29 years. This year, the difference is 0.41 years.

Over the last two decades, the Packers have been among the league’s six youngest teams 13 times.

By experience: The average Packers player has 3.00 years of experience. That matches last year, when Green Bay fielded the least-experienced team since the aforementioned 2017 Browns.

The Rams are next at 3.06, and then there’s a wide gap before the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 3.49. The Las Vegas Raiders have the least-experienced team in the AFC at 3.69 years. In an about-face, the Browns have the most-experienced roster at 5.37. The average is 4.30.

By rookies: The Packers have 12 players who are rookies or in their first NFL season. That’s the fifth-most in the league, though well behind the Rams’ league-high 17. The Lions and Broncos (14 each) and Raiders (13) have more than Green Bay, too.

The average is 9.69.

Rookies Javon Bullard and Edgerrin Cooper are the team’s youngest players at age 22.

By veterans: The Packers have only one player who is 30-plus years old, defensive end Preston Smith, who is 31. Barring the in-season addition of a veteran, the Packers will have only two 30-somethings by season’s end; linebacker Eric Wilson will turn 30 on Sept. 26.

The Rams and Buccaneers have three; the Browns have an NFL-high 14 and the 49ers have an NFC-high 13. The average is 7.91.

The Packers had three players who were 30-plus at this time last year: David Bakhtiari, De’Vondre Campbell and Smith.

The 33rd Team analyzed roster ages before Week 1. Broken down by unit, the Packers had the youngest starting offense in the NFL and the seventh-youngest defense.

A young roster is great for salary-cap purposes. The young talent general manager Brian Gutekunst assembled got the Packers out of their cap problems under Aaron Rodgers and set them up to be competitive financially with Jordan Love.

“I think our football team, as a whole – not just Jordan’s contract but our football team as a whole – is in really good shape,” Gutekunst said after Love signed his $220 million contract extension. “Certainly, I think the young players we went with last year has been helpful to that, to get us out of kind of where we were. The next few years, I think we’re in pretty good shape. There will be some challenges down the road, no doubt.”

Packers Are Tall and Heavy, Too

Height: The Packers have an obvious and long-held bias against short players. Defensive backs and receivers who fall, well, short of 5-foot-10 have no place on the team.

So, not surprisingly, the Packers field the tallest roster in the NFC at 6.23 feet. The tallest team in the league last year, Green Bay trails only Indianapolis and Jacksonville (6.24) this year.

Weight: The average Packers player weighs 247.59 pounds. Only the Seahawks (248.96) are heavier in the NFC; the Patriots (249.02) are the heaviest in the NFL again.

The Packers, on average, were an NFC-heaviest 248.89 pounds last year.

The Packers have 12 players who tip the scales at 300-plus pounds. Only the Lions, Chiefs, Panthers and Giants have more with 13 apiece.

The average NFL player is 6.20 feet tall and 244.51 pounds.

NFL Rosters by College

Information courtesy of the NFL / NFL rosters by college

20 Years of Young Rosters for Packers

Here are the average ages (and ranks) of the Packers rosters over the past two decades. From 2005 through 2017, the rosters were built by Ted Thompson. Since 2018, Brian Gutekunst has been calling the shots.

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)

2023 — 25.13 (1st)

2024 — 24.91 (1st)

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