World’s Best Preview: Surprise! Packers, as usual, are young

Not-breaking news: The Green Bay Packers are young.

While the NFL will crank out the official numbers following Week 1, the Philly Voice’s Eagles beat writer, Jimmy Kempski, crunched the numbers following Saturday’s roster cuts. The results were predictable.

The Packers have the NFL’s fifth-youngest roster with an average age of 25.5. While Tramon Williams is the NFL’s oldest defensive back at age 36 and quarterback Aaron Rodgers is 35, they are offset by all eight of this year’s draft picks making the roster.

“I just think they won the jobs, quite frankly,” GM Brian Gutekunst said of the team keeping all of its draft picks for only the second time since the NFL went to a seven-round draft in 1999. “We’re obviously a draft-and-develop team – that’s kind of the foundation of what we do around here but, at the same time, you’ve got to earn it. I think those guys earned the right to be in that locker room.”

According to Kempski, the Packers’ roster was the 10th-youngest last year (25.7) and 11th-youngest in 2017 (25.7) after being the third-youngest in 2016 (25.4) and 2015 (25.5) and sixth-youngest in 2014 (25.6) and 2013 (25.4).

The rebuilding Dolphins have the youngest roster at 25.2 and the always-powerful Patriots have the oldest roster at 27.0. In the NFC North, the Vikings are the sixth-youngest (25.5), the Bears are the 22nd-youngest (26.2) and the Lions are the 23rd-youngest (26.2).

Video: Shawn Mennenga on his counterpart, Chris Tabor

Special challenge: The new offense being employed by Packers coach Matt LaFleur will face one heck of a challenge against Chicago’s powerful defense. The same is true for Packers special teams coordinator Shawn Mennenga’s unit.

While the Bears finished only 26th in Rick Gosselin’s annual special-teams rankings, they boast perhaps the best returner combination in the NFL. Cordarrelle Patterson, the former Vikings first-round pick, was signed away from New England in free agency. His 30.0-yard career average on kickoff returns is second-best in NFL history behind only Hall of Famer Gale Sayers. Since entering the NFL in 2013, he leads the league with six kickoff-return touchdowns.

Tarik Cohen handles punt returns. He was an All-Pro on special teams last season with a 12.5-yard average on punt returns. While he didn’t score last season he did as a rookie in 2017.

“Their resumes speak for themselves,” Mennenga said. “They’re two of the best in the league. It’s definitely a challenge. They’ve got a good core blocking in front of them and Chris does a great job getting them prepared. They’ll play hard. You’ve got two weapons back there, so it’s definitely a big challenge.”

Chris is Chris Tabor, the Bears’ special teams coordinator. Tabor and Mennenga spent eight years together in Cleveland, with Tabor the coordinator and Mennenga the assistant. Their relationship dates much further than that, though. Tabor spent the 2001 season as the head coach at Culver-Stockton College, an NAIA school in Canton, Mo. Mennenga was his defensive coordinator that season before succeeding him as coach.

“We have a great relationship,” Mennenga said. “He’s my best friend in coaching. He knows me and I know him, so there’s things you think are going to happen. At the end of the day, it’s still the players going out and making plays. I can try and give them tips and what’s been done in the past and show film but, at the end of the day, the players are going to go out and make the plays. We try to put them in the best position possible and let them go out and play fast and physical and see where the chips fall.”

New-look backfield: The Bears will have a fresh look in the backfield after trading leading rusher Jordan Howard to Philadelphia, signing Mike Davis away from Seattle and selecting David Montgomery from Iowa State. They’ll combine with the mighty-mite Cohen to provide a three-headed backfield.

“They’re all a little bit different,” Bears coach Matt Nagy said in a conference call. “We haven’t seen David yet do anything. He has zero experience, so that will be interesting to see how he does. Everyone knows we can do different things with Tarik and Mike Davis has been a really nice addition to our backfield, so we like guys that can do different things. We feel like they all have their strengths in different ways. Now it’s just a matter of how we’re going to use them.”

Montgomery was a tackle-breaking machine at Iowa State. Last season, according to Pro Football Focus, he led the nation by forcing 99 missed tackles. His power could test a Packers defense that is thin at inside linebacker and might rely on safety Raven Greene in that role.

“He’s got a great attitude, he’s soft spoken, he’s got a quiet confidence about him in every way,” offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich told reporters in Chicago. “He’s also kind of closet-hilarious. He’ll come off and maybe pick up Roquan Smith in a pass protection drill and be like, ‘Hey, you see that?’ or something you don’t really expect the first time you talk to him, because he’s a quiet, humble real guy. But very excited about his future.”

Video: Adams talks Packers-Bears rivalry

Pro Bowl battle: Two of the best picks of the 2014 draft will square off with Packers receiver Davante Adams going against Bears cornerback Kyle Fuller.

Fuller, a first-round pick, made his first Pro Bowl last season with a league-leading seven interceptions. Over the last two seasons, he’s tied for the NFL lead with 43 passes defensed. He was No. 95 in NFL Network’s annual player-voted list of the top 100 players.

Adams, a second-round pick, made his second consecutive Pro Bowl last season. Over the last three seasons, he’s 10th in the NFL with 260 receptions and second with 35 touchdown receptions. He was No. 35 on the top-100 list.

“Obviously, there’s no secret I want to score a lot of touchdowns, I want to have a lot of yards,” Adams said of his goals for this season. “I don’t like to make public the specifics on yards and things like that because I don’t want to lose focus — or have you guys think I’m losing focus —on what I’m actually out here for: winning games. So, however many yards come with winning games, that’s fine with me.”