The Green Bay Packers have boasted the youngest roster in the NFL for three years in a row. It’s a crown they aren’t shy about pointing at, even if the net result hasn’t yielded a title. But general manager Brian Gutekunst stepped outside his comfort zone when he traded for Indianapolis Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin.
Could this trade signal a changing of the mindset in Green Bay?
Franklin will turn 30 in July, before training camp even starts. The Packers traded Colby Wooden for him. Wooden started 16 games at defensive tackle for Green Bay last season and is just 25. Quay Walker, whom the Las Vegas Raiders signed in free agency, is also 25.
Green Bay’s general manager went from the guy who kept saying, “We always want to be part of those conversations,” after a star player was traded elsewhere to the general manager who completed a trade last offseason for a mega-star in Micah Parsons.
Gutekunst then went from a general manager who is usually reserved and careful with his answers when the end-of-season press conference rolls around to one who dialed up the urgency and pressure this past February.
Finishing games is certainly something we’ve gotta concentrate on as we head into 2026. It’s all of us. It’s players, it’s coaches, it’s everybody. In situational football, we have to be better, we have to be more consistent. … For me, there’s two things: Do we have the right people out there that can handle those situations, and are we doing everything to give them the best chance to succeed?
Antennas went up when Gutekunst wondered aloud if the Packers have the right people to handle pressure-cooker situations on the biggest stage. When asked if the pitfalls in 2025 — in some gut-wrenching losses — had anything to do with youth on the roster, Gutekunst said no.
That doesn’t mean he believes that. He’s not going to say yes to that question.
The Zaire Franklin trade brings in someone who was a core leader for Indianapolis’ defense for years. That leadership trait can’t go unnoticed.
And Franklin’s durability is just as noteworthy. He only missed one game in eight years with the Colts. If availability is an important ability, consider Franklin one of the best in the business.
Still, the Packers doing business for a player that will turn 30 in the summer is a pivot from how Green Bay conducts things. It’s possible that Gutekunst, who for years has been asked about having the youngest roster in the NFL, is throwing a changeup at least a little bit in 2026.
Consider his comments from 2023, when he said, “I don’t know if it was intentional to be young. I think our intention was to be athletic, fast, and have a really competitive camp so that the best guys rose to the top. I think that’s what we accomplished, but it wasn’t just to be young.”
Now, maybe it was intentional to find a proven player who has a bit more seasoning and experience in the NFL.
Green Bay’s usual blueprint of drafting and developing might have a bit more than a sprinkle of plug-and-play options that are added to the equation this offseason. Franklin may be the beginning of tinkering in the Packers’ roster-building strategy.
The Packers typically like to target free agents entering their second contract and in the prime of their careers. Franklin isn’t that. Still, Gutekunst is betting that Franklin’s experience, coupled with his productivity, adds a different element to the defense.
It’s just as possible that Franklin is an outlier in the grand scheme of things. From the Colts’ perspective, they wanted to shed salary. While Franklin wasn’t breaking the bank, they found a way to cut some salary while adding a known commodity in Wooden.
The Packers have Zaire Franklin on a three-year, $31.26 million deal, while the Raiders signed Walker to a three-year, $40.5 million contract. From that perspective, Green Bay is saving while also adding, and doing so in a way that strays from their normal way of doing business.
Franklin is coming off a down year in 2025. Still, nobody in Packerland is complaining about Green Bay adding someone with a long, proven résumé to a roster that is still littered with youth and inexperience.
Gutekunst almost certainly isn’t going to start adding veterans on the back nine of their careers at a high rate. However, this could signal a loosening of Green Bay’s death grip on the idea that youth, speed, and athleticism will always win the day.