Who's getting older, younger in NFC West

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Medium-sized Lebowski
Joined
Jun 20, 2010
Messages
35,576
Name
The Dude
Mike Sando
http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcwest/post/_/ ... n-nfc-west


NFL rosters undergo massive changes each offseason. That has been particularly true in 2012 as limits increased from 80 to 90 players.

As much as I'd like to comply with requests to publish specific roster breakdowns for age and other factors, the changes require quite a bit of time to process.

A few trends are coming into focus regarding the NFC West already:

The St. Louis Rams keep getting younger. I'm projecting them to be the youngest team in the league by a relatively wide margin, pending a few missing dates of birth for undrafted rookies on other teams. Mario Haggan (32), Quintin Mikell (31), Scott Wells (31) and Harvey Dahl (30) are the oldest players on the team. Gone are Fred Robbins (35), James Hall (35), Justin Bannan (33), Ben Leber (33) and Josh Brown (33). The Rams have not re-signed any of their own unrestricted free agents, including A.J. Feeley (35), Tony Wragge (32) and Brady Poppinga (32). Al Harris, 37, is retiring.

The Seattle Seahawks have quietly gotten older. They ranked among the one or two youngest teams in the NFL last season and could regain that status once roster cuts are made. For now, however, I'm projecting the Seahawks to rank just outside the 10 youngest teams. Seattle brought back Marcus Trufant (31), Leroy Hill (29) and Michael Robinson (29) while adding Alex Barron (29), Frank Omiyale (29), Deuce Lutui (29) and Barrett Ruud (29 this week).

The Arizona Cardinals could get older on defense. Arizona has gotten younger overall, but re-signing Vonnie Holliday (36) and Clark Haggans (35) would probably move the Cardinals back among the 10 oldest teams. Some of Arizona's age is concentrated with its specialists, however. That is also true for the San Francisco 49ers. Sometimes age is a good thing at those positions.

The 49ers are young up front on offense. I'm projecting San Francisco to take one of the two or three youngest offensive lines to camp. Parting with 30-year-old Adam Snyder in free agency affected the equation once the 49ers decided to let youngsters Alex Boone and Daniel Kilgore compete for the job at right guard.


Enjoy your Friday. Hope to see you at the rescheduled NFC West chat. I'll publish a reminder later Friday.
 

ramsince62

Hall of Fame
Joined
Aug 2, 2010
Messages
2,581
Nothing wrong with youth, the problem becomes keeping them together as the team progresses.....I still steam up every time I see a picture or comment about guys like London Fletcher who just keeps going and going.... :bummed:
 

Ramhusker

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Jul 15, 2010
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Bo Bowen
I was just looking at the Rams roster and youth is what jumps out at ya. There are only 7 players with more than 5 years experience. One with 10, two with 9, two with 7, and two with 6. WOW! The Rams must now be just about the youngest team in the league.