Some of us joke that age is just a number. This tends to be the reasoning that we use as we age out of certain activities or wish we were old enough to take part in others. In the NFL, age is often closely tied to production. Age becomes a rather important determining factor in whether or not a player receives another contract or if his forecasted production can not be depended on.
With that in mind, Philly Voice (http://www.phillyvoice.com/ranking-nfl-teams-age-after-53-man-cutdowns-2016-edition/) each year does a breakdown of the 53 man rosters in the NFL in terms of average age. The idea is to create a quantifiable difference in the age of NFL rosters from one to 32. For 2016, the LA Rams have the youngest roster in the league with an average age of 25. In contrast, your Atlanta Falcons have the oldest roster in the NFL with an averaged of 27.08.
While that average age is true, there are players on this Falcons roster that are playing perhaps their final year in the league. Kicker Matt Bryant (41 years old) and defensive end Dwight Freeney (36 years old) skew the numbers considerably on this roster.
With this in mind, I decided I needed a better measure of the true age of this team. Having a 40 year old starting quarterback would affect the team wildly more than having a 40 year old backup quarterback. But you can’t differentiate them with the Philly Voice’s method of age ranking.
I decided to take two different measures. The first is to take the top five paid players on a team’s roster by cap dollars allocated. Most NFL team’s can only afford to pay a core of 5-6 players. Teams that properly management their cap will typically have quality veterans making up this measure.
Falcons Top 5 in pay: (Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Tyson Jackson, Andy Levitre & Jake Matthews) 28.4 years old.
My second measurement was to take the five “core players” that are on the Falcons roster. Here is where the value of what Desmond Trufant means to the team vs Tyson Jackson comes into play. While Jackson is paid as a top 5 player, Trufant would clearly be considered a top 5 core player on this roster.
Falcons core 5: (Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Jake Matthews, Devonta Freeman, Desmond Trufant) 26.2 years old.
The Falcons roster age changes dramatically when you consider the ages of their top 5 players. Suddenly the Falcons are a team with a 26 year old core of players surrounded by older veterans. This is much more representative of how the team is currently constructed.
Other NFC Teams:
Seahawks Top 5 in pay age: 27.6
Seahawks Core 5 age: 27.2
Carolina Top 5 in pay age: 29
Carolina Core 5 age: 28.6
Arizona Top 5 in pay age: 30.2
Arizona Core 5 age: 29.8
Green Bay Top 5 in pay age: 30.4
Green Bay Core 5 age: 29.4
Dallas Top 5 in pay age: 29.6
Dallas Core 5 age: 27.6