Veteran defensive end Preston Smith is the last of a dying breed in Green Bay. According to NFL data distributed by Rob Demovsky of ESPN, the Packers have just one player aged 30 or older: defensive end Preston Smith, who is 31.
Not surprisingly, the Packers have the fewest number of 30-year-old players in football. In fact, they are the only team with fewer than three. For comparison’s sake, consider this: the Cleveland Browns lead the NFL with 14 players aged 30 or older, while the San Francisco 49ers lead the NFC with 13. Eleven different teams have 10 or more players aged 30 or older, and the NFL average is almost eight players per team.
Brian Gutekunst’s roster does have two other 29-year-olds: linebacker Eric Wilson and long snapper Matt Orzech. Wilson actually turns 30 years old on Sept. 26, so Smith won’t be alone for long. Orzech doesn’t turn 30 until next April.
Last year, the Packers entered the season with three players aged 30 or older: Smith, David Bakhtiari and De’Vondre Campbell. Bakhtiari and Campbell were both released.
The old saying states that the NFL is a young man’s game. The Packers are a living embodiment of the fact.
As was the case last season, the Packers are the youngest team in the NFL by average age (24.91) and least experienced team by average years of experience (3.0) after Week 1 of the 2024 season.
Gutekunst needed to climb out of a salary cap hole created by the COVID-19 pandemic and chasing a title in the final years of the Aaron Rodgers era. To do so, he trimmed the fat at the top — ridding the roster of expensive older players — and investing heavily in rebuilding the roster through the draft.
As a result, the Packers are once again young and inexperienced, with the fewest number of older players in the NFL.