The NFL Has an Age Problem

[Ricky Spanish]

Good article about how the new CBA and other mitigating factors have lead to a decrease in average age and experience in the NFL. Rivera and Gettleman are featured in the article. Excerpts from them can be found below, but it's all in all a solid read. Just a little something to get you by until 8:30 tonight:

Quote

Look at Josh Norman,” Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera said. “He was young. He fought the system, he was a maverick, did things his own way.”

Norman entered the league in 2012 as a fifth-round pick from Coastal Carolina. He was a late bloomer who never attracted much attention from big colleges and flashed athletic ability but little more in his first two seasons in the league. “But [secondary coach Steve] Wilks was patient,” Rivera said. “[Defensive coordinator] Sean McDermott was patient. We kept fighting with him and in 2014, he buys in all of the sudden. All of that athletic ability came together with what he was learning and you finally saw the skill.”

Rivera details this particular case because Norman developed into one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL during his age-27 season and a year later was a key piece for the Panthers during their run to the Super Bowl. He is also, Rivera observed, the type of project that NFL teams increasingly have little time for. “A lot of guys we get are tremendous athletes but their skill set hasn’t been fixed,” he said. “There’s no patience.”

Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman said that the sport has changed dramatically because of the combination of less developed player skill sets and a lack of patience from teams. He cited Bill Walsh’s seminal book, Finding the Winning Edge, which stated that from the moment a player (or coach or employee) enters the building, he has two years to prove his worth. This has long been established conventional wisdom throughout the league, but suddenly, it’s become problematic.

“Now, because the players are not coming as ready to use, you have to give him the third year,” Gettleman said. “But there’s no patience.”

No team has had more success with young players in recent years than the Panthers, as Cam Newton, Kelvin Benjamin, Luke Kuechly, Kony Ealy, and Devin Funchess all jumped to the league early and helped build one of the NFL’s best squads. Yet despite their success, the Panthers still worry about the vast youth movement spreading through the league.

 

[CRA]

One thing is true...restructuring rookie pay wasn't about rewarding vets vs rookies (and that is how it was pitched)

it was a about getting young and cheaper labor. 

[Bartin]

3 minutes ago, CRA said:

One thing is true...restructuring rookie pay wasn't about rewarding vets vs rookies (and that is how it was pitched)

it was a about getting young and cheaper labor. 

Owners are still paying the same amount due to the salary cap. The fact that the youth is cheaper is irrelevant to the amount of money spent. It's just redistributed to the veterans, specifically the elite players. It doesn't really help the rank and file that much.

[CRA]

58 minutes ago, Bartin said:

Owners are still paying the same amount due to the salary cap. The fact that the youth is cheaper is irrelevant to the amount of money spent. It's just redistributed to the veterans, specifically the elite players. It doesn't really help the rank and file that much.

what about guaranteed money.

[the butch]

It's no secret.  The NFL is a make money now machine, and if you're coming out of college, you better be ready to roll.  Only a few NFL clubs actually groom their talent instead of relying on the collegiate system to produce the skills they need.  Why spend time developing when you have a ton of money to throw around--and that's the big mistake:  GM's don't have the business sense of, say, a BoA executive, and that salary cap comes back to bite them on players they overpaid.  If you want a great read on Getts' philosophy, read The Intelligent Investor, the seminal text on value investing authored by the late Benjamin Graham.