- For the first time in Mike McCarthy's tenure as Packers coach, he didn't take the field on opening weekend with the youngest roster in the National Football League.
The NFL released their roster averages on Thursday and the Packers are now FIFTH-youngest in the league at 25.92 years. (I originally said fourth)
The Packers had been the youngest team in the league (or tied) for four-straight years.
Carolina has the youngest roster at 25.15. Tampa Bay and Jacksonville are tied at 25.58, followed by Miami at 25.77.
Other updates:
DE Mike Neal (ribs) went through jog throughs for the first time. "Mike Neal made progress today, so we’ll see how he feels in the morning," McCarthy said. "Hopefully he can go through a full practice tomorrow. Tomorrow morning will be a big obstacle, which is usually is after a player comes back for his first day of practice."
McCarthy wouldn't say Charles Woodson, who didn't practice again, is full go. "Well, it’s the big toe, and it was a pretty good injury on Friday. He made it through the game, and we’ll just judge it week to week."
McCarthy said it was business as usual with LB A.J. Hawk: "No, I have not talked to A.J. Hawk about the story or your story or whoever’s story it was in today’s paper. I thought A.J. had a normal, professional day today like he always does. Practices hard, prepares the right way, getting ready to beat Buffalo."
And Hawk's future with the Packers? "A.J. Hawk is a very good football player. You can’t always put just 11 players on the field that are good players. I will not apologize for having more than 11 good defensive football players on our team. I’ve discussed this with our football team at the beginning of the season. It’s tough to utilize those guys, but those are good problems. This is something we’ve been building as a personnel department and we’re very thankful we have A.J. Hawk and a number of other very good players."