Youth on this team

[Spanky731]

With the addition of James yesterday, I could not help but think what we have just witnessed these past couple of months. We went from one of the oldest teams in the league with depth in old vets like Wade, Godfrey, stoutmire, etc..., to a team that has been infused with youth at almost every position on this team. Could we use a couple of more talented young guys at LB? definatly. But every other position on this team now has a young player who could move into the starting role within a couple of years. Our FO has had one of the best offseasons in recent memory. Even the years when we wouldnt make much noise, we'd pick up guys like warrick holdman and old scrubs like that . I love what we've done this year and it has me really excited for the future.

And yes vet experience is important but how about we stop letting guys get experience with other teams and then come to us, and instead get them rolling right here.

:dallasuck

[Rex Tomb]

I agree completely. I think if James can stay healthy, he and Carter will be a force to be reckoned with. Even if he doesn't, it doesn't matter because we didn't trade away a fortune. Kudos to the front office for their change in ways!

[Rdskn4Lyf21]

Very good point...I hadn't thought about that :applause:

[Manny555]

i like getting younger too. you look at some of the teams in the nfc east and how young they are. if we stayed on our path we were going to get bad fast.

[BALLz]

I agree, and especially with the OLine. Now I know none of our rookies have proven anything but we drafted + signed a few pretty solid UDFAs. I'm excited about the potential of our future OL.

[JimmyConway]

With the addition of James yesterday, I could not help but think what we have just witnessed these past couple of months. We went from one of the oldest teams in the league with depth in old vets like Wade, Godfrey, stoutmire, etc..., to a team that has been infused with youth at almost every position on this team. Could we use a couple of more talented young guys at LB? definatly. But every other position on this team now has a young player who could move into the starting role within a couple of years. Our FO has had one of the best offseasons in recent memory. Even the years when we wouldnt make much noise, we'd pick up guys like warrick holdman and old scrubs like that . I love what we've done this year and it has me really excited for the future.

And yes vet experience is important but how about we stop letting guys get experience with other teams and then come to us, and instead get them rolling right here.

:dallasuck

Yes we're getting younger BUT imo we're still a few drafts away from being able to call our team young. We're definitely headed in the right direction.

[abu69]

We're still the oldest team in the league.

[SkinsHokieFan]

Lets look at it from both sides of the ball

The under 27 crew

QB-Campbell

RB-Portis (although he will be 27 in September)

T- Heyer

G- Rinehart

WR-Thomas

WR-Kelly

TE-Cooley/Davis

On the D

DT-Montgomey/Golston

DE-James, Buzbee, Wilson, Jackson

LB-Blades, McIntosh

CB-Tyron, Rogers

S-Landry, Doughtery

Am I missing anyone? That isn't a bad core to have right now for Zorn to work with

[Aireskoi]

I think Gibbs trusted vets and wanted his roster full with as many as possible. I wonder if Zorn is behind the youth movement, or if it's just the FO retooling from the four years of Gibbs' influence on the roster.

Don't get me wrong, Gibbs has 3 trophies to show his way worked.

I like the addition of the younger players, we have a nice mix of vets and youth.

[fwo40]

It's too bad James' kness are more like those of a 55 year old.

[ucfSKINS]

i like getting younger too. you look at some of the teams in the nfc east and how young they are. if we stayed on our path we were going to get bad fast.

you mean we would have STAYED bad fast...

[Sawyer5500]

Lets look at it from both sides of the ball

The under 27 crew

QB-Campbell

RB-Portis (although he will be 27 in September)

T- Heyer

G- Rinehart

WR-Thomas, Mix

WR-Kelly

TE-Cooley/Davis

On the D

DT-Montgomey/Golston

DE-James, Buzbee, Wilson, Jackson

LB-Blades, McIntosh, Sinclair

CB-Tyron, Rogers, Torrence, Westbrook

S-Landry, Doughty, Moore, Horton

Am I missing anyone? That isn't a bad core to have right now for Zorn to work with

[#98QBKiller]

Our FO has had one of the best offseasons in recent memory. Even the years when we wouldnt make much noise, we'd pick up guys like warrick holdman and old scrubs like that . I love what we've done this year and it has me really excited for the future.

I couldn't agree more. I hope we can expect this every offseason....good job FO.:applause:

[Sawyer5500]

Yeah i hope we trade down next year too and completely rebuild both lines and add some young talent at linebacker, fullback.

[Playsmart30]

Lets look at it from both sides of the ball

The under 27 crew

QB-Campbell

RB-Portis (although he will be 27 in September)

T- Heyer

G- Rinehart

WR-Thomas

WR-Kelly

TE-Cooley/Davis

On the D

DT-Montgomey/Golston

DE-James, Buzbee, Wilson, Jackson

LB-Blades, McIntosh

CB-Tyron, Rogers

S-Landry, Doughtery

Am I missing anyone? That isn't a bad core to have right now for Zorn to work with

WR - Mix

QB - forgot the name but rookie we pick

P - rookie

[Thoth]

I agree, and disagree.

We got younger, but are still one of the oldest teams in the NFL, especially on both lines.

It was a move in the right direction, but we need 1-2 similar drafts and offseasons to completely right the ship, and we need to, excepting only perhaps a CB, draft some trench guys first 2 rounds:

Jansen, Thomas, Rabach, Kendall, Griffin, Daniels, Washington. We need to start replacing them with young players, or at least developing their replacements.

Of course, you can't do it all in one year. Next year you'd hope every pick in the draft was a lineman except for 1-2 CBs and 1-2 LBs, and that, excepting CB, our first 3-5 picks are all trench players.

Then you scuttle the older linemen that can't play, send Griffin packing, and have new DT join Monty/Golston for young group, etc.

[jimster]

I agree, and disagree.

We got younger, but are still one of the oldest teams in the NFL, especially on both lines.

It was a move in the right direction, but we need 1-2 similar drafts and offseasons to completely right the ship, and we need to, excepting only perhaps a CB, draft some trench guys first 2 rounds:

Jansen, Thomas, Rabach, Kendall, Griffin, Daniels, Washington. We need to start replacing them with young players, or at least developing their replacements.

Of course, you can't do it all in one year. Next year you'd hope every pick in the draft was a lineman except for 1-2 CBs and 1-2 LBs, and that, excepting CB, our first 3-5 picks are all trench players.

Then you scuttle the older linemen that can't play, send Griffin packing, and have new DT join Monty/Golston for young group, etc.

Washington and Rabach are both 30/turining 31 during the season - that's not that old. I agree we need to start grooming replacements for down the road, especially Kendall, but Washington is still playing well.

Daniels, while 34 sounds scary, he's still performing at a high level. He's been said to be probably the strongest guy on the team. I have no problem with having someone older on the team if they're still contributing effectively.

[bobbydigytel]

we need the right combination of both veterans and youth

looks like we are on our way

:cool::cool::cool::cool::cool:

[JohnnyWhiteGuy]

I really like the prospect of a few of the young guys taking over for the older ones. I'd like to think that while London is still a good MLB, that we'll groom someone like Blades to take over here in the next few years. I do think we need to keep on this path for 1-2 more drafts before we consider ourselves a "young" team, especially with the age of our lines.

[Laxpunk2006]

I hate to be a negative Nancy but there is a difference between having youth and talented youth. We've gotten some young guys along the OL, but they're all late picks and UDFA. That isn't to say they can't all be HOFers, but chances are most of them aren't going to become legit NFL players. We got some young S depth, but at the same time, most late picks don't work out.

James could stay healthy and realize his potential, but chances are IF he even makes the team there is a much better chance he's going to be depth than a starter. At LB we have virtually nothing. I like Blades but that is 1 of 3 positions.

We obviously have solid depth at WR and RB now. I like our depth at QB as well, even though we don't have a known commodity at starter. TE we should be solid at as well if Fred Davis can get a good alarm clock.

I hate having to rain on everyone's parade but we are still a very old team. We still have a lot of depth holes. Who plays if Rabach goes down? It's also WAY too early to say this was a good offseason. I'm very happy with it as of now, but honestly who WASN'T happy when we got Arch Deluxe, BLloyd, Carter, and El?

The point I'm trying to make is it's just too early to tell if our offseason was any good or if our depth is any good.

[skinsfan834]

Another young LB would be nice to add to our roster.

[RunClintonRun26]

To be fair to the OP, he is absolutely right that this team has gotten significantly younger this off-season compared to past ones . . . So that in itself is a worthy accomplishment and will probably help the team in the long run . . . And while I never agreed with Gibbs' philosophy of getting older players for younger ones, I can't help but agree with LaxPunk's point of TALENTED youth. Again, I would much rather have younger, cheaper guys who may not be there talent wise than old vets who can only last a year or so. So if it were up to me, I would have a team comprised of only young players save for a few vets here and there for obvious reasons. But, as LaxPunk pointed out - we cannot know how these young guys will be for at least a year. IF our scouts did their jobs correctly and really found some talented guys, then hell, with the amount of younger players we have installed in this team this year we can expect big things out of them for years. BUT again, it cannot be decided until at least a year.

[21LightsOut21]

This is why we need to sign Takeo Spikes, I know he' not young, but he will help with the depth of LB's THIS year... That's all we need this year for our LB's, is band-aids. Next year we can draft some LB's. I was kinda hoping Keith Rivers fell to us because I could have seen us taking him, but I like how things went. People get too wrapped up in the "young-mans game" nonsense. Yes, this is game where you have to be healthy,and perform at a high level, BUT... That does NOT mean the old player we have on our team are holding us back from anything, they are actually the reason (I think) that all these late round draft picks & UDFA are working out for us. PLayer like Heyer,Doughty,Blades,& etc, are being taught buy our Vets, and that's the easiet way to learn.. We have a great balance of young & old players, we just need to add a couple more young guys in there to make is 50-50.. Hell, even 60% youn guys to 40% older vets would be perfect... I do not mind at all having older guys like Daniels on our team, because even though his age is up there, Like Jason Taylor, his body is that of a 26-27 year old... Favre played for a long time, look at John Lynch,Marshall faulk,Darrell Green, etc.. All those guys played at a high level, for a long time.. It's usually injuries and production loss that gets a player canned, and fact is, Daniels is an anchor for us, we need to hold on to that for as long as we can.

[DarrellsMyHero28]

Say no to Takeo

I don't even know if he would be a band-aid.

Maybe one of those little tiny circle ones...

[21LightsOut21]

Say no to Takeo

I don't even know if he would be a band-aid.

Maybe one of those little tiny circle ones...

haha that made me laugh :laugh: ..But why do you figure that? Do you know his numbers last year w the eagles? They were pretty good, I'll post them if you dont already know.