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2016 AV-Adjusted Team Age: Overall

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we looked at the average age for each team’s offense and defense in 2016. Today, let’s look at the overall picture (ignoring special teams). By that measure, the Jaguars, Browns, Rams, Bucs, and Texans have the five youngest teams in the NFL. Take a look:

RkTeamTeam AVAge
1Jacksonville Jaguars17825.9
2Cleveland Browns15625.9
3Los Angeles Rams15426.1
4Tampa Bay Buccaneers19626.2
5Houston Texans18726.2
6Kansas City Chiefs21226.3
7Chicago Bears16226.3
8Dallas Cowboys23026.4
9Detroit Lions18926.5
10New York Giants21126.5
11Tennessee Titans21126.5
12Oakland Raiders20526.7
13San Francisco 49ers15826.8
14Green Bay Packers21726.9
15Denver Broncos20726.9
16Seattle Seahawks21726.9
17Miami Dolphins19126.9
18Pittsburgh Steelers21727.0
19New York Jets15727.1
20Carolina Panthers18727.1
21San Diego Chargers19227.1
22Atlanta Falcons24027.2
23Washington Redskins21427.2
24Philadelphia Eagles19727.3
25Indianapolis Colts21127.3
26Arizona Cardinals20927.4
27Buffalo Bills20427.4
28New England Patriots25327.5
29Minnesota Vikings20427.6
30Cincinnati Bengals19727.8
31Baltimore Ravens20027.8
32New Orleans Saints20928.0

For the Jaguars, here were the players who had at least 6 points of AV last year, with their age in parentheses:

Note that this list excludes LB Myles Jack (21.0), WR Allen Hurns (24.8), and DE/OLB Dante Fowler (22.1).  And the offense added RB Leonard Fournette with the fourth overall pick.  The defense has an incredible amount of young talent, and the offense has a lot of potential with Robinson, Hurns, and Fournette.  This is obviously a huge year for Bortles: if the Jaguars don’t have a winning record, it will likely be because of below-average quarterback play.

We can do the same exercise with the Chiefs, who had the sixth-youngest team in the NFL last year. It was surprising to see Kansas City trade an enormous sum to move up for Patrick Mahomes, but that may be a sign that Kansas City is thinking long-term, too.  Below are all players on the Chiefs who had at least 5 points of AV last year, with their 9/1/16 ages in parentheses:

Behind Hill — who may become a superstar — and Kelce in the passing game are Albert Wilson and Chris Conley, who are both 25 this season. And with Ware and 2017 third round pick Kareem Hunt, the running game is extremely young, too. Mahomes may not play in 2017, but come 2018, he could be part of a young and talented offense.

As for the oldest teams in the league? The Ravens led the league last year with 10 players 30 or older who had at least 5 points of AV; the Saints and Colts were tied for second with seven.  New Orleans has the oldest AV-adjusted team age in part because of the quarterback, but he wasn’t the only player to come in 2006 still on the roster.  That year, the Saints signed Drew Brees (39 in January) and drafted Zach Strief and Jahri Evans, and they were three of the cornerstones of the offense 10 years later.  Evans is now in Green Bay, but the Saints also traded 23-year-old Brandin Cooks to the Patriots, so the offense may not be much younger this year.

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