![]() ![]() It’s a bigger problem when there could be as many as five rookies among the Week 1 starters. But all four of them are gone, with Cobb and Lazard in New York with Rodgers and the Jets. That’s not a problem when a team has a veteran quarterback like Rodgers and veteran pass-catchers like WR Randall Cobb, WR Allen Lazard, TE Marcedes Lewis and TE Robert Tonyan. Still, it’s harder now to be successful with younger players than it was just a decade or so ago thanks to changes in the collective bargaining agreement that shorted the offseason program, limited practice time in training camp and eliminated a preseason game. You're always kind of keeping an eye on that while the main focus is right now, but I think if you don't keep yourself growing, you can get stagnant very quick, so I think I learned that through that period of time.” “I mean that's our job here, right?” Gutekunst said. The bulk of those draft-and-develop rosters became the backbone of their Super Bowl XLV team. In three of those seasons, they were either the youngest or tied for the youngest. That’s when, under the late general manager Ted Thompson, the Packers perennially ranked as one of the best teams in the league.Įvery year from 2006 to 2011, the Packers’ average age was among the top-five youngest in the NFL. We’re going to coach these guys hard, and we expect them to show up with a great attitude every day and give everything they can.”įor those who have been around here longer like Gutekunst, a Packers scout for 20 years before he became the GM in 2018, it feels like the mid-2000s. I think there’s a lot of excitement that goes along with that. “It feels like we’re right back where we started when I first got hired here. “It feels like Year 1, quite frankly,” said LaFleur, who was hired in 2019. While LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst have refuted the notion that the Packers are rebuilding, they have embraced the idea of a young roster. This year, there are nearly 30 players who could be considered good bets to make the 53-man roster under the age of 26. Last year, they ranked 16th with an average age of 25.96. While official rosters data with average age and experience level won’t be calculated until Week 1 rosters are set, the Packers will climb up the list of youngest teams in the league. “The unknown,” he said at the start of his fifth training camp in charge of the Packers. With only two players on the roster older than 30 - and one of them is 32-year-old punter Pat O'Donnell - the biggest challenge and concern with this baby-faced roster is clear to coach Matt LaFleur. With no immediate plans to sign a veteran receiver or bring in an experienced quarterback behind first-year starter Jordan Love, these aren’t Aaron Rodgers' Green Bay Packers anymore.įor starters - and among the starters - they’re younger. You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browserīiggest concern for young and inexperienced Packers: 'the unknown' ![]()
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