Comments on: Ray Lewis and London Fletcher: incredible outliers or a signal of something more? http://www.footballperspective.com/ray-lewis-and-london-fletcher-incredible-outliers-or-a-signal-of-something-more/ NFL History and Stats Tue, 28 Aug 2012 17:07:59 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.7 By: Independent George http://www.footballperspective.com/ray-lewis-and-london-fletcher-incredible-outliers-or-a-signal-of-something-more/#comment-874 Tue, 28 Aug 2012 17:07:59 +0000 http://www.footballperspective.com/?p=944#comment-874 Somewhat off-topic, but does anybody else find it odd that Sam Mills isn’t even in the conversation for the HoF, while his teammate Rickey Jackson is already in? I don’t have a dog in the fight, but most accounts I’ve read consider Mills the leader of the Dome Patrol, not Jackson. His 126 career AV is diminished by three years in the USFL.

]]> By: Richie http://www.footballperspective.com/ray-lewis-and-london-fletcher-incredible-outliers-or-a-signal-of-something-more/#comment-873 Tue, 28 Aug 2012 16:54:46 +0000 http://www.footballperspective.com/?p=944#comment-873 I went to the original table for your data, to see how many guys contributed past age 33. I limited the list to guys who averaged 1+ AV per season during their age 33+ seasons. There are 76 of them.

Of those 76:
14 of them turned 33 between 2006 and 2010, but only 5 of them turned 33 between 2001 and 2005.

Then from 1990-1995, there were 11 guys who turned 33. So, things kind of peaked in the early 90’s, but then dropped down again until the mid-2000’s.

Even if you look at the cumulative AV of these guys, the mid-2000’s crop dominates.

No matter how you look at it, the mid-2000’s guys are at a peak. But there have been other peaks (early 90s, early 70s) – especially if you adjust for the number of teams in the league.

That got me to thinking two things:

1) Maybe right now we just have a group of guys who are abnormally good at their age.
2) Maybe the change to a pass-heavy offensive philosophy in the NFL is saving the careers of the middle linebackers.

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