ESPN Details Packers’ Historically Young Passing Attack
GREEN BAY, Wis. – New Green Bay Packers starting quarterback Jordan Love will rely on an unimaginably young group of receivers and tight ends for the 2023 NFL season.
In a ranking of the NFL’s receiver, tight end and running back corps, ESPN.com’s Bill Barnwell noted the Packers might have the “least-experienced” passing game in NFL history.
Based on the projections by ESPN’s Mike Clay, the average age for Green Bay’s receivers and tight ends is 23.4. Barnwell went back through the 1990 season and determined only the 2017 Cleveland Browns fielded a younger group. That team, led by 21-year-old rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer, went 0-16.
It’s a group so young that fourth-year tight end Josiah Deguara, who is 26, “might as well be Marcedes Lewis,” Barnwell wrote.
The Packers will enter their 2023 training camp without a receiver with more than one season of professional experience. It is, by far, the youngest group in the NFL.
For a 2-minute drill at the recent minicamp, the receivers were Christian Watson (second season), Romeo Doubs (second season) and Jayden Reed (rookie), and the tight end was Luke Musgrave (rookie). Watson, at age 24, is the oldest player from what could wind up being Green Bay’s premier offensive grouping.
Because they’re so young, the production is minuscule. Every receiver on the roster has caught 88 passes in the NFL. Every tight end on the roster has caught 47 passes.
That’s 135 receptions; Rams star Cooper Kupp caught more than that by himself in 2021.
Of course, the lack of production doesn’t mean the Packers lack talent. It only means they lack experience.
The reason for optimism starts with Watson. Starting with his three-touchdown destruction of Dallas in Game 10, Watson over the final eight games of his rookie season ranked 32nd with 31 receptions, 17th with 523 receiving yards, sixth with a 16.9-yard average and first with seven touchdowns. Projected over 17 games, Watson wound wind up with 66 receptions for 1,111 yards and 15 touchdowns.
Can Doubs be a reliable threat? How about the rookie Reed? Can either Musgrave or Tucker Kraft be more productive than most rookie tight ends?
As for the theme of Barnwell’s story, the Packers’ perimeter group ranks 28th. He’s not nearly as bullish on the running back duo of Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon as most observers, due to Jones’ fumbles and Dillon’s declining production.
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