The Green Bay Packers aren’t one of the first teams that come to mind as, well, old. In fact, there are only two players on the entire roster who are 30 years old or older: long snapper Matt Orzech and kicker Brandon McManus.
The NFL is a young man’s game more so today than it has ever been, and with the Packers having a young roster and a playoff-caliber squad, it’d stand to reason that they’d be one of the more promising young teams in the NFL, right?
Last year, ESPN published a piece ranking the NFL’s rosters based on talent under the age of 25. The Packers ranked ninth on that list. Flash forward to this year’s publishing of the same exercise, and the Packers dropped toward the bottom of the list.
Packers youth movement surprisingly takes a hit in latest ESPN ranking
Green Bay checked in at No. 24 on the list, the lowest ranking for any team that was in the top 10 a year ago, as Jayden Reed, Rasheed Walker, Quay Walker, and Romeo Doubs ‘graduated’ from consideration from the list’s criteria.
Now, the Packers aren’t like the Houston Texans, where their best players are all seemingly under 25, but it’s not as though Green Bay doesn’t have young talent who have played well and continue to carry high expectations.
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Linebacker Edgerrin Cooper, tight ends Tucker Kraft and Luke Musgrave, and guard Sean Rhyan are the guys who have gotten on the field at a young age and proved their worth to the organization. They aren’t superstars, yet, but heavy contributors to Green Bay’s success nonetheless.
A couple of offensive linemen without defined starting roles in Jordan Morgan, last year’s first-round pick, and Anthony Belton, a second-rounder this year, can hardly be considered toward the list’s criteria. The same can be said of receivers Matthew Golden and Savion Williams, since neither rookie has played in a game yet. Still, they’re worthy talents all who will soon play a factor, all the same.
Still, it’s a surprising result for Green Bay to land so low despite the youth carried on the roster overall. Sure, players like Jordan Love and Xavier McKinney don’t contribute to the list’s criteria, but at 26 themselves, they point to the bright future ahead for the Green Bay roster. But look at rosters that ranked ahead, like the Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Rams, and it's strange that the Packers couldn’t fit closer towards the middle of the league instead of toward the bottom.
Overall, the rankings being what they are don’t undo the investments the franchise has made in recent drafts, nor do they paint a complete picture of the youth the Packers have on their roster.
Outside of honing in on players who have been in the league for a max of three seasons in most cases, then, sure, the Packers may not stack up quite as well. But that’s in large part because Green Bay’s youngest players are often backing up 26-to-28-year-old players on the depth chart.
Otherwise, it’s tough to deny that the Packers don’t have one of the most talented young rosters in the NFL.