Youth is wasted on the young

[Harlan Huckleby]

It is good thing to have a young team for a year or two of rebuilding.

Doesn't the fact that Green Bay still has one of the youngest teams in the league just mean that Thompson has failed to build a winning team? He hasn't hit on the necessary veterans.

What is the average age of Super Bowl winners? I would think it has to be above the league average, an optimal team needs a mix of experience and cheap young players.

[Harlan Huckleby]

Maybe this topic was already beaten to death. I just noticed an article from last week.

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/59514387.html

G.B. has had the youngest team in the league for 4 years in a row! Good God, this is crazy.

I wish I could find a stat on the average team age of Super Bowl winners compared to rest of league.

[mraynrand]

I think this was covered. The youth is concentrated in back ups. Starters have much more experience. But it makes the Packers vulnerable to short term injuries (all teams are vulnerable to long term injuries, meaning that few teams can weather significant, season-long loss of starters).

[Noodle]

I don't have a Super Bowl verage age figure, but Blue Dog you may find this article interesting, as it suggests that young may be a good thing:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs07/columns/story?columnist=clayton_john&id=3221211

I also found the listing of ages for this year:
http://www.operationsports.com/forums/pro-football/355408-something-interesting-oldest-youngest-nfl-teams.html

It's hard to draw any conclusions. Generally, there are more crap teams at the young end, but there are plenty of crap teams in the middle and at the old end.

[Fritz]

You're only saying that because you're old.

And blue.

And a dog.

[Noodle]

Sorry about that, I tried to embed some urls and I must have screwed up.

Anyway, an article from 2008 by John Clayton says that getting young is good, and he notes that a number of playoff teams for 2007 and 2006 were also some of the youngest in the league.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs07/columns/story?columnist=clayton_john&id=3221211


A listing of the average age of teams this year is a mixed bag. There are good teams and crap teams at youngest, oldest, and middle.

http://www.operationsports.com/forums/pro-football/355408-something-interesting-oldest-youngest-nfl-teams.html

But I would like to see the pack bring in an old ugly or two for the OL.

[Waldo]

Our starters are also unusually experienced for their age.

Early on the "rebuilding" was largely a cause of that stat, replacing older overpriced players with rookies and UDFA's.

As time has went on, the lack of 3rd contract players has a lot to do with it.

Our specialists (P, K, LS) are all very young. They tend to last forever, a 30 year old punter, kicker, and LS would have a fairly major impact on roster age.

Wolf's guys are all near retirement age, if not retired, Thompson's earliest guys are all just getting to their 2nd contracts. The complete lack of players that Sherman acquired as rookies largely contributes to this situation in GB. Only 3 players remain on the team from Sherman's days as GM. Players acquired during that time would today be in their prime. We just have Kamp, Barnett, and Jenkins to show for it.

[mraynrand]

Our starters are also unusually experienced for their age.

Early on the "rebuilding" was largely a cause of that stat, replacing older overpriced players with rookies and UDFA's.

As time has went on, the lack of 3rd contract players has a lot to do with it.

Our specialists (P, K, LS) are all very young. They tend to last forever, a 30 year old punter, kicker, and LS would have a fairly major impact on roster age.

Wolf's guys are all near retirement age, if not retired, Thompson's earliest guys are all just getting to their 2nd contracts. The complete lack of players that Sherman acquired as rookies largely contributes to this situation in GB. Only 3 players remain on the team from Sherman's days as GM. Players acquired during that time would today be in their prime. We just have Kamp, Barnett, and Jenkins to show for it.

But that's not too surprising, either. Sherman had a three year window as GM, and Thompson is in his fifth year. Wolf's fifth year was the Superbowl and he had virtually no holdovers from Bratz. Butler, Jacke and Ken Ruettgers for a cup of coffee was it I think.

[MJZiggy]

It is good thing to have a young team for a year or two of rebuilding.

Doesn't the fact that Green Bay still has one of the youngest teams in the league just mean that Thompson has failed to build a winning team? He hasn't hit on the necessary veterans.

What is the average age of Super Bowl winners? I would think it has to be above the league average, an optimal team needs a mix of experience and cheap young players.

Dunno, Blue, has this team won anything in the last 4 years?