I was looking at my projected roster for next season. I have seven of the 2010 draftees realistically making the roster:
McCourty
Gronkowski
Spikes
Cunningham
Price
Hernandez
Mesko
Adding these players to the 2009 draft bounty, the Pats are starting to get pretty young. Especially on defense. From my projected 53-man roster, I tally 21 players that will be under 25 years old on Sept. 1. Only twelve players will be over 30 years old, and ten of them will be on the offense. (What is concerning is that seven of the ten will be offensive skill position players.) So, I project that there will be only one or two players (G. Warren, and/or D. Lewis) over 30 years old on the defense next year, and you could argue that one or both will not even make the roster. Banta-Cain, at 30 years old, could be our senior statesman on defense!
I don't know how this compares with other teams, but I think it is pretty interesting. While a youth movement may be good in some ways by potentially adding speed and athleticism, it has a flip side. What seemed to be missing from last year was veteran presence/leadership. I don't see an abundance of it looking forward four months from now. For instance, who is the "leader" of the secondary? I don't have Springs on the roster. Sanders? He's only 26 and a part time starter. Linebackers? Mayo talks about leadership, but he's only 24. Do other defensive players really look up to him at this point in his career? I dunno. Wilfork and Warren provide some leadership, but historically they ahve both been the "lead by example" types. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose but who is the vocal leader?
Naturally, if the Pats pick up one or a few of the right kind of veteran players cut from other teams it could swing things a bit, but probably not by too much. More likely, one of our injury-prone geezers (Neal, Morris, Taylor, etc...) gets put on IR or retires further youthening (hey, is that a new word?) the locker room.
Anyway, jsut something I noticed.
McCourty
Gronkowski
Spikes
Cunningham
Price
Hernandez
Mesko
Adding these players to the 2009 draft bounty, the Pats are starting to get pretty young. Especially on defense. From my projected 53-man roster, I tally 21 players that will be under 25 years old on Sept. 1. Only twelve players will be over 30 years old, and ten of them will be on the offense. (What is concerning is that seven of the ten will be offensive skill position players.) So, I project that there will be only one or two players (G. Warren, and/or D. Lewis) over 30 years old on the defense next year, and you could argue that one or both will not even make the roster. Banta-Cain, at 30 years old, could be our senior statesman on defense!
I don't know how this compares with other teams, but I think it is pretty interesting. While a youth movement may be good in some ways by potentially adding speed and athleticism, it has a flip side. What seemed to be missing from last year was veteran presence/leadership. I don't see an abundance of it looking forward four months from now. For instance, who is the "leader" of the secondary? I don't have Springs on the roster. Sanders? He's only 26 and a part time starter. Linebackers? Mayo talks about leadership, but he's only 24. Do other defensive players really look up to him at this point in his career? I dunno. Wilfork and Warren provide some leadership, but historically they ahve both been the "lead by example" types. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose but who is the vocal leader?
Naturally, if the Pats pick up one or a few of the right kind of veteran players cut from other teams it could swing things a bit, but probably not by too much. More likely, one of our injury-prone geezers (Neal, Morris, Taylor, etc...) gets put on IR or retires further youthening (hey, is that a new word?) the locker room.
Anyway, jsut something I noticed.
