Youth is served

Rebuild filled with youngsters

- Chris Russell

Chase Young, Ryan Anderson and Jonathan Allen

When it comes to NFL roster makeup, there’s not much difference between the youngest roster in the league and the middle of the pack.

Per Jimmy Kempski of PhillyVoice.com, who has covered the Eagles and NFL for years, on the day that rosters were cut down to 53, the Jacksonville Jaguars had the youngest average age at 24.9 years. The Washington Football Team was 14th overall at 25.8 years, not even an average of one full year above Jacksonville.

Essentially age is just a number for charting purposes.

It’s good to be young. It’s good to also have experience. It’s nice to have a perfect blend. That seems to be what coach Ron Rivera’s guys have for the most part. Still, they skew younger than the last few seasons.

Make no mistake about this: Washington will only go as far as the young bucks will take them. That’s why Rivera and his front office decided to cut 35-year-old Adrian Peterson despite his ticket already punched for Pro Football Hall of Fame entry. A surprise move, the day before roster cuts were due to give him essentially his own day, Peterson caught on with Detroit.

Rookie Antonio Gibson, J.D. McKissic, Peyton Barber, and Bryce Love together are a quartet of backs that made the roster and provide hope, even though half of the group are essentially in their first NFL season.

Love missed his entire rookie season as he recovered from torn ligaments in his knee at Stanford. Love is just 23. Gibson is 22. McKissic and Barber are 27 and 26, respectively. The running back position is ideally where you want to be young. Just not too young.