ESPN special

Haven't we been too old for like 30 years now? It's the same old crap every generation. Oh, what will they do without Lloyd? Oh, what will they do without Gildon? Oh, what will they do without Porter? And now, what will they do without Harrison? The people making these claims are literally so short-sighted that they can't even bother to scroll down a little to see the rest of our depth chart. Anyone remember how in 2010 our biggest problem entering the season was supposed to be that we had no one to throw the ball to without Holmes? We had Hines Ward, Mike Wallace, Sanders, Brown, and Randel El on the roster, not to mention Miller, Mendenhall and Moore, but we didn't have anyone to throw the ball to. Half the draftniks and pundits had us taking a WR in the 1st round over Pouncey. Last year they said we were done because our DL was sooo old, like a 34 year average. I don't care if they are a 50 year old average if we have starters lined up behind them. Smith and Keisel are too old? Bummer. Good thing we have Ziggy and Heyward over there picking their noses just waiting to get in. All we really didn't have was a long-term replacement at NT (no longer a problem) and a long-term replacement at ILB (we'll see). But they think we're doomed everywhere. There was plenty of talk about us taking Coples to replace James Harrison, like that's such a pressing need. Forget the fact that his replacement is already here and playing.

It's not complicated, it's simple. They don't know we have other players on the roster. All the talk about Smith and Keisel's age last year was because they simply didn't know about Ziggy and Heyward. That information was not in their information box. They have the same knowledge of our depth chart as the commenters on the bottom of NFL.com articles that say, "Dood, wut r thy gunna do witout Homes??? Steelerz r done, Ravens got HOUSH!!!111" ...So we will be in a perpetual downward spiral, no matter how many Super Bowls we go to or win.

 

i do, because we can use the nurses that wheel them out as cheerleaders.

 

I think those numbers can sort of be manipulated easily by us. First, let's look at our offense:

QB: 30
TE: 29
RB: 27 (24 if Mendy)
WR: 23, 25, 25
Oline: 22/29/22/22/24 (assuming Adams starts)

Average: 25.3....not sure there are any offenses out there with a younger average age. (25 even with Mendy)

Defense can be affected by so much.

Is Keisel the starter or Heyward start?
What about Foote or Sylvester? Hampton or McClendon?

Our defense isn't young by any stretch, but we are far from being "old".

Dline: 33/34/25 (Keisel and Hampton) 23/26/25 (Heyward and McClendon)
Linebacker: 34/31/26/27 (Foote) 34/23/26/27 (Sylvester)
S: 31/32
CB: 26/32

Average Age with older guys starting: 30.09
Average Age with younger guys starting: 27.7

If you look at the differences in those numbers, over 3 years younger on average just by changing out 3 guys. Yes, the D is older at some positions, but you gained 3 years AVERAGE AGE just by changing 3 guys, replace Harrison, Ike, Troy, and Clark and this team gets young quickly on D. This doesn't include Ta'amu, it is McClendon starting. This team has Keisel's replacement. This team has Hampton's replacement on the roster and we will need very little on the offensive side of the ball next offseason. We may have Ike's replacement on the roster already in Cortez Allen. If Sylvester works out, we have Foote's replacement. We could go S, S, ILB next year in the draft and then guess what NFL...this D isn't old, they got young quickly. We are retooling and reloading...not rebuilding.

 

On another note, my initial target for our draft. TJ McDonald, S, USC.