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Rob Demovsky, ESPN Staff Writer
GREEN BAY, Wis. — When the Green Bay Packers traded defensive end Preston Smith to the Pittsburgh Steelers last week, it meant the entire free agent class that general manager Brian Gutekunst signed in 2019 — including Adrian Amos, Za’Darius Smith and Billy Turner — was gone.
So is just about everyone else from that season.
Only four players remain from Matt LaFleur’s first team as the Packers coach: Jaire Alexander, Kenny Clark, Rashan Gary and Elgton Jenkins.
Such is the way for the youngest team in the NFL for the second straight season. There is little room for thirtysomethings 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 opening-day rosters.
“Matter of fact, I was talking to Kenny about it yesterday,” LaFleur said on Thursday. “I think it takes a certain type of guy. Certainly, a lot of those guys were pretty young in their career. But it just also goes to show this league is ever-changing, ever-evolving.
“The shelf life of a player is not really that long, and I think it’s always good for those guys to talk to the younger guys, just in terms of maximizing your time in this league and in our building.”
While having only four players left from the 2019 team might seem jarring, it’s actually not particularly outside 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 came back), and the Bears have none.
If the Chiefs are the gold standard, then it’s worth noting 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 stuck around this long:
Jaire Alexander
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 might not 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 brought that up unprompted during an interview this week.
Having a new defensive coordinator in Jeff Hafley, who has said he thinks Alexander is still “one of the best” corners in the league, has helped Alexander’s mindset.
“I think it’s just like a new energy around here,” Alexander said. “It feels fresh. I don’t have to worry about anybody thinking about me in the past, of me getting suspended [and the] disciplinary stuff. We all came in with a clean slate. It allows me to be free.
“Also, I’m in a much better head space. After I got suspended, that was like the start of something great. I started changing my mindset then. I needed it. Well, I wouldn’t say I needed it, but it kind of woke me up, and I kinda had to get on the straight and narrow.”
When told he’s one of only four Packers remaining from LaFleur’s first team, Alexander scanned the name plates in the locker room as if 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 quite believe there were only four players left from LaFleur’s first season. He, too, did a quick check of the room as he sat at this locker this week.
“I’d 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 now. When guys get traded during the year, it’s definitely tough. Sul [Rasul Douglas] got traded last year, but it’s the nature of the business.”
At 20, Clark was the youngest player picked in the first round of his draft, which explains why despite being in his ninth season, he just turned 29 years old 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 to have received third contracts from the team.
“I still feel like I’ve got a lot of years left on my body,” Clark said. “But most definitely, if it all makes sense, of course, I would love to end my career here as a Packer. I’ve been here all my life, a third of my life. I’ve been here since I was 20. I’ve really grown up here, and this place is really home for me. So yeah, of course, I would love to stay here the rest of the career.”
Rashan Gary
Even with a serious injury, the 2019 first-round pick has remained. The defensive end tore the ACL in his left knee midway through the 2022 season yet still was rewarded with a four-year, $96 million contract extension less than a year later.
Gary’s production has waned this season — he has 2.5 sacks despite playing in all nine games so far — but there’s little chance they would move on from him after this season considering the salary cap ramifications.
At 26, there’s 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 the business of everything,” Gary said. “You’ve got to keep everything the main thing, and also realize you have to enjoy the moments, the time you have with people, because you never know what may happen.”
Elgton Jenkins
The 28-year-old, two-time Pro Bowl left guard is the only non-first-round pick of the foursome. He was picked in the second round of the 2019 draft and became an instant starter at left guard as a rookie. Even before the 2022 season was over, 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 guys who come to work,” Jenkins said. “Not saying that guys that used to be here didn’t, but we’re just guys that come to work, hold ourselves to a certain standard and try to represent what the G means.”
Even then, Jenkins knows there are no guarantees. That hit him especially hard when the Packers traded receiver Davante Adams in 2022.
“It really hit me when I see Tae leave — a guy I thought was going to be here forever,” Jenkins said. “But sometimes it’s not up to you.”
Source: www.espn.com