Patriots Defense gets younger

by MaPatsFan on Jun 8, 2009 8:17 PM EDT in New England Patriots News

Breakout the wheelchairs. Does that dude need some Geritol? How about a cane? That's what we heard about our aging defense and rival fans and bloggers never let us forget it. Well, times they are a changin'. After combing through the defensive rosters for 2007, 2008, and the projected depth chart for 2009, the age of New England's defense is heading down. Need the numbers and rosters before you buy into it? Ok, check out this spreadsheet on Google Docs. I tried my best to limit this to the correct starters, but it can get a bit murky (ex: in 2007, Adalius Thomas moved from outside to inside linebacker). The average of the starters for a year is in each workbook corresponding to that year, but I'll summarize here:

2007: 28.64
2008: 29.18
2009: 28.2 (Yes, I have Wilhite listed as starting LCB; blame the projected depth chart)

An interesting factoid while scrolling through the spreadsheet is the number of players over 30:

2007: 5
2008: 5
2009: 3

Bottom line? The New England Patriots are, on average, getting younger and their shedding players over 30. They're picking up a nice balance of youth and experience which could help them make it through a long season. And I haven't even begun talking about the youth of their backups.

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Comments

Never bought age argument

I never really bought into the age argument – at least not for the defense as a whole. All the important players on the D-line are in their prime, and the issue in the defensive backfield has more been with injury-prone-ness than with age.

Only with the linebacking corps has age – and lack of speed – been a big issue.

by hythlodaeus on Jun 9, 2009 3:06 AM EDT reply actions

and last season

when injuries forced the return of Seau and Colvin (who’s not that old) it only made the age factor more visible

Keep the faith!

by Marima on Jun 9, 2009 7:31 AM EDT up reply actions

I agree

I never understood the “old and slow” argument when it only applied to one particular group and not the whole defense. Even then, there is a trade-off. It’s either we’re old and slow at linebacker, but held down by experienced veterans who understand their responsibilities… or we’re fast, young, and inexperienced.

by NESilver on Jun 9, 2009 10:03 AM EDT up reply actions