Players 31 and older

You know, I get so tired hearing about how "OLD" this team has become. Here are the current players 31 years of age and older.

Troy P. 31
Ryan Clark 32
Larry Foote 32
Bryon Leftwich 32
Ike Taylor 32
Brett Keisel 33
Casey Hampton 34
James Harrison 34
Charlie Batch 37

Let's look at each player and see where we stand at each of those positions based on the players age.

Troy P. - He is the biggest impact player on this roster whose departure will change things. IMO, we have no one on the roster to replace him. Right now, he would be the position I would take someone to replace probably in round #1. Look to USC for a possible replacement.

Ryan Clark - Mundy is what Mundy is...a depth player. He knows the defense, but at some point we need to upgrade here for a starter.

Larry Foote - There are typically 4 ILBs on this team, sometimes 5. If we carry 4, 3 of those guys will be Timmons 26, Spence 22, and Sylvester 24. Yet, somehow we are worried about how old we are with a guy who is younger than the player who was the starter in front of him last year.

Byron Leftwich - Yep, he is older. Of course he would only see the field if the player in front of him got hurt. He basically will have very little impact on the games at all. He might see the field this year...he might not, but I am not worried about a 32 year old backup QB.

Charlie Batch - you know why we are on backup QBs, lets look at Batch. What is his role? He is a 2nd OC or QB Coach on the sidelines. He should get very good at holding the clip board, because that is all we should expect of him unless we have a horrible year with injuries, in which case age will be the least of our worries.

Taylor - Again another guy getting older, but you are also looking at a guy in top physical shape. With Allen 23 and Brown 23 and Lewis 26 already in the fold we shouldn't be too worried about age here.

Keisel - He seems to get better with age, but at some point that will catch up with him. Heyward and Hood have me not worried about starters, but I would like to see one of the young kids step up at DE to show they can provide depth...preferably 2. Don't count out some of those guys, we often forget that Keisel was a 7th round pick.

Hampton - This is his last year and if we didn't have McLendon and Ta'amu on the roster I might be worried, but age is not a factor I am stressing about at this position.

Harrison - Carter 23 and Worilds 24 both have me pretty happy with our position here. When you realize that Harrison didn't even make our roster until he was 26, you can see why. Woodley is only 27 and is already dominant at his position. If he plays as long as Harrison, he would have another 7 years at that position for us.

Our 2nd older Olineman is 24 assuming Adams starts at LT. Our RBs are young, our WRs are young. I am not stressed at all about age with this team and ANY "expert" who says otherwise just hasn't looked at this roster.

 

I should have included in my statement...

The only players on offense 31 years of age or older are backups....

 

It seems our defense has almost always been a heavy dose of vets with young guns are installed gradually. I'm concerned that so many players are over 31 but at the same time, age isn't new information and based on their track record, I'd say we'll be alright with the age of our team.

 

I think what you sy suggests we need to spend some high draft picks in the secondary coming up.

 

Good post and I like what you wrote. You made a lot of good points. One main problem with the defense last year (and this could be due to age) was I felt that our players were constantly being outrun. I felt when a player got a step on us he either made a really long run or had too many extra yards and we were always chasing. I even remember seeing that happen a lot in the first half of the season with Troy P. (Also the final Denver game was a prime example of what I was talking about. We looked so slow in that game!) As much as I liked Farrior, I felt he had the most trouble keeping up with these fast runners. We also had too many missed tackles throughout the year, yet we still finished statistically ranked number one in the NFL.

I think our "D" players recognize all of this in statements I have heard many of them throughout camp make the statement "Although we were ranked number one, we must play a lot better this year!"

 

I said this before, think it applies here as well. Our D was being out run last year, because Troy was playing too close to the line. He was doing so because Harrison and Woodley were hurt and we had no pass rush. With the two of them healthy and on the field, not only will we have a pass rush again, but Troy will be free to roam, making our secondary stronger and any chance of being out run reduced greatly.