The Green Bay Packers have moved to a new era of offensive football, as evidenced by the age of the team’s skill-position players. Every important offensive piece of the team is 25 years old or younger, except for running back Aaron Jones and tight end Josiah Deguara.
General manager Brian Gutekunst’s front office has made a coordinated effort to create an environment of players with similar ages and timelines in the NFL so they can grow together and subsequently elevate the entire organization.
Age of Green Bay’s skill position offensive players by the start of the season:
QB
- Jordan Love (24)
RBs
- Aaron Jones (28)
- AJ Dillon (25)
- Lew Nichols III (22)
WRs
- Christian Watson (24)
- Romeo Doubs (23)
- Samori Toure (25)
- Bo Melton (24)
- Jayden Reed (23)
- Dontayvion Wicks (22)
- Grant DuBose (22)
TEs
- Josiah Deguara (26)
- Luke Musgrave (23)
- Tucker Kraft (22)
The 2023 draft consolidated a smart approach after moving on from Aaron Rodgers. Even though Gutekunst took a defensive player in the first round, seven of the 13 picks the Packers made were offensive skill position players — one quarterback, three receivers, two tight ends, and one running back. That includes all three picks made on Day 2. The new members of the team join a core of three receivers taken in last year’s draft — Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, and Samori Toure.
This approach might generate a difficult time of adaptation and development, but it’s the right path to build a consistently strong team moving forward.
Growing pains
A big piece of the narrative throughout Aaron Rodgers‘ tenure in Green Bay was his inability or unwillingness to involve new pieces to the offense. The hand signals were reportedly a big factor in blocking the aggregation of new players — not only rookies but also external veterans. But with Jordan Love as the starting quarterback, the expectation is that the Packers will run a more strict version of what head coach Matt LaFleur wants.
Even so, it’s natural that such a young core will take time to develop — the pieces, individually, but also everyone as a group.
“That’s going to be interesting to work through in regards to, there is a ton of youth, you look at just the skill-position rooms in particular. Obviously, up front we’ve got some experience, with our running backs, we’ve got some experience,” LaFleur mentioned after the draft. “But it’s going to be interesting to see how much we can really put on these guys’ plates, because typically I would say the more veteran you are, the more volume you can carry in your offense. So that’s going to be one of those things that we’re going to have to probably figure out throughout the course of OTAs and in training camp to see how this offense goes.”
Path for success
There is almost a consensus in the NFL around the idea that building the roster through the offense is the most reliable and sustainable way to have a winning team. Jordan Love is obviously the biggest piece of the puzzle, because quarterbacks have the ability to elevate others more than anyone. But the offensive weapons, and even most of the offensive line besides David Bakhtiari, could all break out simultaneously. It’s hard to imagine that every piece will hit, but it’s unlikely that everyone will fail, so there will be enough talent to hope for good results.
“That’s a little bit of the idea,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said during the draft. “I think it’s important for those guys to grow together.”
In addition to the potential financial flexibility, this is also a good reason for the Packers to not have added veterans like they did last year with Sammy Watkins, while letting other older players (Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb, Robert Tonyan, Marcedes Lewis) walk.
After trading Aaron Rodgers, going young was imperative for the Packers to create a new identity. Throughout the draft, the front office showed how much they value offensive pieces. It was an important step to build a strong unit, even without the future Hall of Fame passer.
