Packers' Projected Starting Offensive Line is Third-Youngest in NFL

Chalk this one up in the "not a big surprise" category, but it's still interesting to note. According to projections from Philly.com, the Green Bay Packers' offensive line is among the youngest in the NFL - and their projected starters make up the third-youngest such unit in the league.

While the exact projected starters are not immediately shown, it is logical to think that the line consists of the following players, from left to right, along with each player's age as of the opening week of the 2014 season:

David Bakhtiari (22)
Josh Sitton (28)
JC Tretter (23)
T.J. Lang (26)
Bryan Bulaga (25)

With two members of the 2013 draft class penciled in as starters, it's easy to see why the Packers' line is among the youngest. However, it's not like they have any other grizzled veterans on the team - Sitton is the oldest starter at 28 (he's 27 now but will turn 28 in June). It's also easy to forget how young Bulaga is, since he turned 21 just a month before he was drafted in the spring of 2010.

Of course, this says as much about Ted Thompson's player acquisition strategy as it does anything else. Thompson loves his young players and of course believes strongly in building through the draft rather than free agency. After the retirement of long-time tackles Chad Clifton and Mark Tauscher in recent years, he elected to work through a number of young players at their old spots rather than bring in established veterans to plug in for a short period of time.

There are 17 projected starters on NFL offensive lines who are 31 years or older; obviously the Packers do not have a single one of those - in fact, they don't even have a backup lineman older than Sitton. Time will tell whether this strategy pans out, at least at the center position, as Tretter is widely expected to battle rookie fifth-round pick Corey Linsley for the starting job.