Experience counts

Speed kills I would like someone to find the avg speed of each team and see how it corralates to wins. I would think the winning percentage would be prety high.

It's a winning formula so far. Just look at what they plan to do at QB. They trade Cassel for a top 2nd round pick. They'll use that pick to get a stud QB and sign a grizzled veteran like Patrick Ramsey and use that combo to win Superbowls in 2010 or 2011. They are doing the same thing at LB and it wouldn't surprise me to see a revamp of their RBs, keeping only the Sammy Morris gravy train.

Where are the rings?

The super bowls wins came with a younger team.

Detroit has a speedy team.

The average age should go down with 11 draft picks!

What? I dont agree for the most part. speed is important, but how would you effictively compare a speed based tampa2 defense verses a more typical 3-4. the tampa2 team will most likely be much faster, but a slower team (like the pats) might have more wins. would you be comparing by position groupings, off to deff, or the teams as a whole?

This is not exactly an accurate picture. An outlier like Bruschi should be controlled for and removed since he is not an every down player anymore.

Mike when you did this was Rodney Harrison counted as part of the team? I would think removing Harrison and Bruschi would change this picture dramatically.

Also guys like Springs and Galloway are inflating the number.

It would be a lot more useful/interesting (and more work) to try to correlate average age on the field per snap. That I would think would give a much better snap shot of a team;'s true age.

Well that depends on how you define "speed". If you're talking 40 times, I'd be willing to bet there isn't much of a correlation. Granted, all else being equal, you'd prefer a guy who can run a 4.2-40 versus someone who runs a 5.6...but all else is rarely equal. If I had to choose between a DT who can run a 4.4-40 but is 230lbs, and a guy who runs in the fives but weighs 310....size matters for DTs.

Same with other positions. Fast QBs don't tend to be more successful than slow QBs. Compare Peyton Manning and Tom Brady to Michael Vick. Hell, compare ol' "Iron Legs" Bledsoe to Michael Vick. The guy couldn't bend his knees and was twice the QB vick ever was (or will be).

Also, tall fast receivers are more successful than tall slow receivers....but I don't know if little fast guys are more successful than tall slow guys (like a Michael Irvin versus a Steve Smith...kind of a wash). In LBs, I'd take a guy with better read/react skills over a faster guy. Also, I'd say that quick burst off the ball is more important for DEs and OLs than 40 time....but then "quick burst" is a form of speed...so who knows?

Also, as a comparison for receivers....Rocket Ismail was regarded as one of the fastest guys in the league for a number of years. He only broke a thousand yards in a season twice (not breaking 1100), never made a probowl, and ended his career with fewer than 6,000 yards and 30 TDs. Marvin Harrison was never considered particularly fast, even in his prime, but he blew those numbers out of the water.

Good stuff Mike. I'd be curious to see what these numbers look like for just the 22 projected starters on O and D. You have to think the number drops again after the Pats add starter-ready players to their mix with their early picks. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Pats draft starters at ILB, OLB and Right Tackle this year. Is that too optimistic?

The Pats probably have one of the faster teams in the league. The CBs (especially Hobbs, Wheatley, and Wilhite), WRs (especially Moss and Lewis, and maybe Galloway), and some of the linebackers (Guyton, Mayo, Thomas) are among the fastest in the league at their positions. They've also got guys like Watson and Maroney who are very fast for their positions.

Seymour may be a future trade part in any trade for Peppers, but Pats will wait to after June 1 in order to spread his $6mm cap hit over two years. He currently including salary woild have, best guess, a $6,406.720 hit. Sound like it could help both teams with their caps.

I would not worry about the avg. age as an indicator why they did not win the super bowl. If you just avg out the starting age on the D and compare it to the super bowl champ Steelers, you will quickly see that the Steelers were about 1 full year OLDER at the average than the Pats were this past year.

Glick,
Do you really have nothing better to do??? I usually ignore you because of the lame act, but good lord you are a db.

gick, the '01 championship team was pretty old. The '03 championship defense, which was phenomenal, was also ancient. The starting defense looked like...

DL: Ted Washington, Bobby Hamilton, Seymour
LB: Bruschi, Phifer, McGinest, Vrabel
DB: Law, Poole, Rodney, Wilson

Only Wilson and Seymour were "young" at the time. I'm pretty sure the '09 starting lineup is younger.

Older doesn't necessarily mean worse even for a specific player. Would you rather have Brady in '01 or Brady in '07? Granted, I still rather have Brady in '01 than pretty much anyone else in the league today....but I'd rather have Brady in '07 than anyone else in history. The guy dominated and I don't think he was capable of doing that (even if he had Moss and Welker) back when he first came into the league.

Another example of getting older but getting better is the WRs. Randy Moss is 32 right now. Doug Gabriel is 28. Reche Caldwell is about to turn 30 (still over 2 years younger than Moss). Would anyone here prefer to have either (or both) of those guys over Moss?

The key is getting guys at the right time, whether it's young so you can develop them in your system for low money, old so they bring a wealth of experience and are hungry for a ring....and you can sign them for relatively low money, or in their prime (26-29) so they can contribute at a high level for higher dollars. Without that mix of experience, growth and performance, you won't have a team worth fielding.

Also, it's nice to know that the average age is still a few years older than myself. Makes me think that maybe, just MAYBE, I could still lace 'em up :)

MarkZ,

Don't let facts get in the way of Glick's annoying act.

BB's comment about getting everything he can from hungry older players sounds like the foundation for Jason Taylor, no?

Bill knows what he wants, and he won't pull the trigger on a player like Peppers until the man can look him in the eye and promise to play, practice, and prepare up to the coach's standards. The minute he gets his bling bling, he'll be back to 2007 (2 sack) Peppers. Let him be some other idiotic team's problem. He's also NEVER played OLB. But that's ok, let's have him learn on the job in the most complex scheme possible. I don't think so.

I see JT in a uni for training camp...