Like Brett Favre before him, ‘older brother’ Aaron Rodgers tries to bridge Packers’ generation gap

2:02 AM ET

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The quarterback surveyed the Green Bay Packers’ locker room — as if scanning the field in a fruitless search for an open receiver — and shook his head. Another spring, another familiar nameplate or two gone. Another guy he’d won a Super Bowl with, another guy he’d played cards with on charter flights to and from road games, another guy he’d become close friends with — gone.

“The longer you’re here,” the quarterback said, “the more that happens.”

That was the scene 10 years ago, and the quarterback talking was a 36-year-old Brett Favre, heading into the 15th of his 16 seasons in Green Bay. With his Packers coming off a 4-12 finish and a decade removed from their Super Bowl XXXI title, the future Pro Football Hall of Famer had returned from an extended offseason to find the generation gap growing.

“It’s like I was telling [my wife] Deanna, ‘You know, there’s nobody left that was [on the Super Bowl teams],'” Favre said following an organized team activity practice that spring, the first under then-rookie head coach Mike McCarthy. “You look at the roster, and guys were born in the ’80s — that’s when Deanna and I started dating, ’83! It’s like, ‘My God! We’ve got guys born in ’83, ’84!’

“But it’s a good thing because I’m still here; not a lot of guys can say that.”

Aaron Rodgers has fewer and fewer familiar faces around him, although he still can lean on close friend Jordy Nelson. Brett Davis/US Presswire

A decade later, Aaron Rodgers can say that. Entering his 12th season — and ninth as the starter after his three-year apprenticeship behind Favre — the 32-year-old Rodgers is now experiencing exactly what his predecessor endured then. The longest-tenured player on the team — and second-oldest, behind 36-year-old Julius Peppers — Rodgers finds himself on a 90-man roster in which more than half the players (55) are 24 or younger.

He is especially disappointed that free-agent fullback John Kuhn, who was willing to return for the 10-year veteran’s minimum salary, has not been re-signed. Kuhn, whom Rodgers called “a dear friend,” has been with the Packers since 2007. He’ll turn 34 two days before the regular-season opener at Jacksonville.

“There’s a lot of ’90s babies in here,” Rodgers said after last week’s first open-to-the-public OTA practice, referring to the 70 players on the roster born in 1990 or later. “It’s weird. It’s a different locker room. It’s tough …

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