Belichick takes youth movement to the next level

[Brady6]

We have ourselves a youth movement in Foxboro, the average age of the players on the 53 man roster is 25.67 years old, and granted he’d be staring on MTV’s Teen Mom, but Brady isn’t too far removed from having a father son age difference with some players on the roster.

I personally see it as a good thing; Belichick appears to feel he can get the younger player to do the things he needs to do to win, ever since the 2009 season Bill has made an effort to build with you, he has been making less and less of the end of the career playing signings, and even less of them stick. Youth and upside is also a positive from my perspective as a fan because it is much more fun to watch players progress than it is to watch them regress.

Aiken, Danny 25
Allen, Ryan 23
Amendola, Danny 27
Arrington, Kyle 27
Barker, Chris 23
Beauharnais, Steve 23
Bequette, Jake 24
Blount, LeGarrette 26
Bolden, Brandon 23
Boyce, Josh 22
Brady, Tom 36
Buchanan, Michael 22
Cannon, Marcus 25
Cave, Braxston 24
Cole, Marquice 29
Collins, Jamie 23
Connolly, Dan 31
Dennard, Alfonzo 23
Develin, James 25
Dobson, Aaron 22
Ebner, Nate 24
Edelman, Julian 27
Fletcher, Dane 26
Francis, A.J. 23
Gostkowski, Stephen 29
Gregory, Steve 30
Gronkowski, Rob 24
Harmon, Duron 22
Hightower, Dont'a 23
Hoomanawanui, Michael 25
Jones, Chandler 23
Kelly, Tommy 32
Mallett, Ryan 25
Mankins, Logan 31
Mayo, Jerod 27
McCourty, Devin 26
Ninkovich, Rob 29
Ridley, Stevan 24
Ryan, Logan 22
Slater, Matthew 27
Solder, Nate 25
Spikes, Brandon 25
Sudfeld, Zach 24
Svitek, Will 31
Talib, Aqib 27
Thompkins, Kenbrell 25
Vellano, Joe 24
Vereen, Shane 24
Vollmer, Sebastian 29
Wendell, Ryan 27
White, Chris 24
Wilfork, Vince 31
Wilson, Tavon 23

 

[hwc]

I think a lot of that has to do with the premium prices that veterans were getting (before this year's market correction) in free agency compared to the bargain prices of players in the first four years of their careers under the new CBA. Basically, the model now has to be get fast production out of new players and move on after their rookie contracts. The collapse of free agency prices this off-season reflects those new economics.

Combine that with the apparent realization across the league that signing free agency players usually doesn't pan out.

 

[Ozymandias]

The best way to go in this era is to build through the draft and develop your own players. Inexperience will undoubtedly cost this team at some point, but the hunger and desire to be great and prove themselves might outweigh that inexperience.

The Patriots are the only team I think of that has 10+ wins every year even while they're rebuilding. That is highly impressive.

 

[ATippett56]

Four football players who participated in training camp with NFL experience landed on injured reserve:

Cunningham, Jermaine
Francis, Justin
Green, Tyronne
Wilson, Adrian

2013 New England Patriots Roster | Ourlads.com

 

[Uncle Rico]

More info on this (beyond ages):

Ben Volin ‏@BenVolin 2h
Just crunched the numbers. #Patriots have most rookies (14) and UDFAs (7) of any NFL team. Saints have 6 UDFAs. Falcons & Rams have 12 & 5

 

[ALP]

Wait...there's 14 rookies on the roster? Ohh man, that number is high as hell

 

[Boogs]

The younger guys tend to be the quicker, faster guys. Many athletes lose a step in the late 20's early 30's. On the flipside, the older guys have more experience to draw from. But it's easy to overpay for these guys like it's been mentioned.

 

[YearbookCurfew]

I wonder if we'll be drafting a kicker in the next few years. Gost is getting a bit old.

 

[AzPatsFan]

The best way to go in this era is to build through the draft and develop your own players. Inexperience will undoubtedly cost this team at some point, but the hunger and desire to be great and prove themselves might outweigh that inexperience.

The Patriots are the only team I think of that has 10+ wins every year even while they're rebuilding. That is highly impressive.

Ozy,

I too appreciate the quiet rebuilding that BB has accomplished over the past few years, since he began in earnest to totally strip down the aged Superbowl clubs and start a total rebuild in 2009.

He never even admitted or even entertained the term "Rebuilding", even while that is what he was doing. It was a learning experience on how to do so. Draft a set of talented youngsters, sign an equivalent number of aging vets, to provide a floor for performance and expectations. Then discard or not, the vet patches as the newcomers advanced or didn't.

During that time to keep winning, BB frequently kept old vet patches elsewhere, to tide him over until he found new youngsters that could play, while he worked on the chosen squads selected for rebuilding in any year. We have seen him rebuild in turn the LBs, D-line, and continue the multi-year effort finding the dozen or so players of the new secondary.

On Offense he has rebuilt in turn, the Offensive line with bookend future Probowl tackles, and a developed a new C; addressed the TEs, the RBs, and now the WRs, in turn.

Some self-styled Draftniks criticize drafting failures as though any one else scores any more often in the Draft roulette. But their rear view mirrors never see or mention their own losing picks, or other team's failures. It is a tribute to his draft ability that he has never had a total failure in Round 1, something few other Teams can boast.

Still the same stat you quoted is the true measure of how well BB has done. BB has never produced a team that won less than 10 games. He even made a Superbowl appearance with a badly incomplete team wholly lacking in Defense. Others would have chosen a "Suck for Luck" 1-15 season, and a couple of 5-11 campaigns, and thought they were doing well to finish at .500, in their fourth rebuilding year.

The last few groups using vet patches extensively, were the object of his rebuilding efforts this off season. The proof isn't in yet, but the WR corps is full of young good looking receivers. The age of the those squads and the Team as a whole, has plummeted, even as the Team has gotten stronger.

The vet ST-only patches are being replaced with regular reserves who are just learning ST play and cohesiveness. Scott O'Brien and Joe Judge have had their hands full selecting the 11 guys to use on their four ST teams. It will probably be a few games before they settle down.

Won't it be delightful to go back to normal mode, and simply draft good players that fall to your picks? Then you can red-shirt or develop them for a year, before having to play them too soon, selecting say a Defensive or an Offensive lineman as needed?

 

[larryo]

Barker is going to have a huge year. Bow wow.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

I wonder if we'll be drafting a kicker in the next few years. Gost is getting a bit old.

Haha.

Seriously, though, kickers who last as long as Gostkowski tend to peak in their 30s, not their 20s.

 

[mcmurtry86]

BB has never produced a team that won less than 10 games.

Well, except the years that he did.

 

[jmt57]

From Monday's Q&A:

Q.: Did the Patriots want to get younger with 14 rookies?
BB: "No, we want to win."​

By the way, here are two articles ranking the average age by team in the NFL. I assume the difference in the charts is due to when the snapshot was taken, as rosters are constantly changing. One ranks the Pats as the 10th youngest team and the other places the Pats 11th. The first link further breaks it down by ranking the Pats 10th youngest on offense, 21st on defense, and 28th on special teams.

2013 NFL age rankings at reduction to 53 | Mike Sando | espn

Ranking NFL teams by age: Rams the youngest, Lions the oldest | Philly.com