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Rob Demovsky, ESPN writer
GREEN BAY, Wis. — When the Green Bay Packers traded defensive end Preston Smith to the Pittsburgh Steelers last week, it meant the entire class of free agents general manager Brian Gutekunst signed in 2019, including Adrian Amos, Za’Darius Smith and Billy Turner. .. was gone.
Just like almost everyone else from that season.
Only four players remain from Matt LaFleur’s first team as Packers coach: Jaire Alexander, Kenny Clark, Rashan Gary and Elgton Jenkins.
That’s the path the youngest team in the NFL is following for the second consecutive season. There is little room for 30-somethings on a roster that opened the season with an average age of 24.91, the youngest in the NFL since the 2017 Browns (24.17), according to the NFL’s annual analysis of rosters. opening day.
“I was actually talking to Kenny about this yesterday,” LaFleur said Thursday. “I think it takes a certain type of person. Certainly, a lot of those guys were pretty young in their career. But it also shows that this league is constantly changing, constantly evolving.
“The shelf life of a player isn’t really that long, and I think it’s always good for those guys to talk to the younger guys, just in terms of maximizing their time in this league and in our building.”
While the fact that there are only four players left from the 2019 team may seem jarring, it’s actually not particularly out of the norm. Among NFC North teams, the Vikings also have four players remaining from their 2019 roster, while the Lions have three (one of whom left and returned) and the Bears have none.
If the Chiefs are the gold standard, then it’s worth noting that they still have eight players from 2019, although two had stints with other teams in between.
Here’s a look at how the four longest-tenured Packers have held up this long:
Jaire Alejandro
At various points, including the cornerbacks’ one-game suspension last year for conduct detrimental to the team, it looked like the 2018 first-round pick wouldn’t last in Green Bay.
Now, the two-time All-Pro cornerback believes it may have been the best thing that happened to him. In fact, he mentioned that spontaneously during an interview this week.
Having a new defensive coordinator in Jeff Hafley, who has said he believes Alexander is still “one of the best” cornerbacks in the league, has helped Alexander’s mentality.
“I think it’s like a new energy around here,” Alexander said. “It feels fresh. I don’t have to worry about anyone thinking about me in the past, about getting suspended.” [and the] disciplinary things. We all arrive with a clean slate. It allows me to be free.
“Plus, I’m in a much better place mentally. After I got suspended, it was like the start of something great. Then I started to change my way of thinking. I needed it. Well, I wouldn’t say I needed it, but “It woke me up. and I had to go on the right path.”
Told he was one of four Packers left from LaFleur’s first team, Alexander scanned their name plates in the locker room like he couldn’t believe it.
“I’m looking and there’s no one else,” Alexander said. “I tell people, man, only the strong survive.”
Kenny Clark
No one has been here longer than Clark, the Packers’ first-round pick in 2016. But like Alexander, the defensive tackle couldn’t believe there were only four players left from LaFleur’s first season. He also quickly checked the room while sitting at this locker this week.
“You had been with P for what, six years?” Clark said of Preston Smith. “I mean, of course it hurts. A lot of the guys I came in with are gone. When guys get traded during the year, it’s definitely tough. Sul [Rasul Douglas] “It was negotiated last year, but it’s the nature of the business.”
At 20 years old, Clark was the youngest player taken in the first round of his draft, which explains why despite being in his ninth season, he just turned 29 last month. When he signed a three-year, $64 million extension in July, he joined a small group of recent Packers that includes Aaron Rodgers, David Bakhtiari and Mason Crosby who received third contracts from the team.
“I still feel like I have a lot of years left in my body,” Clark said. “But definitely, if it all makes sense, of course, I would love to finish my career here as a Packer. I’ve been here my whole life, a third of my life. I’ve been here since I was 20 years old. “I really grew up here and this place It’s really my home. So yes, of course, I would love to stay here for the rest of my career.”
Gary Rashan
Even with a serious injury, the 2019 first-round pick held up. The defensive end tore the ACL in his left knee midway through the 2022 season, but was still rewarded with a four-year, $96 million contract extension less than a year later.
Gary’s production has declined this season (he has 2.5 sacks despite playing in all nine games so far), but there’s little chance he’ll be released after this season considering the salary cap ramifications.
At 26 years old, there is plenty of time for Gary to return to form, but the Smith trade also reminded Gary of the reality of the NFL.
“It just shows you how everything works,” Gary said. “You have to keep everything as the main thing and also realize that you have to enjoy the moments, the time you spend with people, because you never know what can happen.”
Elgton Jenkins
The 28-year-old left guard, a two-time Pro Bowl selection, is the only non-first-round pick of the quartet. He was a second-round pick in the 2019 draft and instantly became a starter at left guard as a rookie. Even before the 2022 season ended, he received a four-year, $68 million contract extension.
He sees a common thread between him and the other three remaining players from 2019.
“We’re definitely come-to-work guys,” Jenkins said. “I’m not saying the guys that used to be here didn’t do it, but we’re just guys that come to work, hold ourselves to a certain standard and try to represent what the G stands for.”
Even then, Jenkins knows there are no guarantees. That especially affected him when the Packers traded wide receiver Davante Adams in 2022.
“It really hit me when I saw Tae go, a guy I thought would be here forever,” Jenkins said. “But sometimes it’s not up to you.”
