Cowboys get old at wrong positions
By John Clayton
ESPN.com
Teams that play with too much age are playing with fire.
Loading up with aging veteran starters can provide the leadership necessary to turn a good team into a great team. Look at the Patriots. They've patented the processes. Bill Belichick knows the value of role players and loves to fill out key positions with veterans.
Last year, he added cornerback Tyrone Poole, safety Rodney Harrison, defensive tackle Ted Washington and won his second Super Bowl in three years. The Patriots entered the 2003 season as the league's oldest team with an average age of 27.91, the oldest since the start of the new millennium.
But while the Patriots brought in all those veterans, what got lost in the equation was a good draft that restocked the team with Ty Warren, Eugene Wilson, Bethel Johnson, Dan Klecko, Asante Samuel and Dan Koppen.
Age can singe teams, too. Seven of the nine oldest teams this year have losing records. Last year, five of the eight oldest teams were losers. In 2002, the number was seven out of nine. In 2000, four of the top five oldest teams didn't make the playoffs.
Personnel isn't a simple job anymore. Actually, it never was, but the job is getting tougher in the salary cap age and it makes the idea of coach-general manager prehistoric. The salary cap punishes a team for bad free agent mistakes. Cap planning for the future pulls head coaches out of the day-to-day thinking that is needed to win games. "One-game-at-a-time" doesn't work in personnel because teams always have to look ahead.
And the urgency to look ahead is even more important on older teams because the dropoff can be rapid. The Raiders are a classic example. In 2002, they were tied with Detroit as the league's second oldest team with an average age of 27.5, just behind the Chiefs. Since their Super Bowl loss to the Bucs at the end of that season, their record is 7-18.
Older teams require bolder decisions. Belichick stays ahead of the curve because he and vice president of player personnel Scott Pioli constantly churn their roster. The Patriots got younger after winning the Super Bowl with the league's oldest team, falling from an average age of 27.9 to 27.23. They got one great starter out of the draft, defensive tackle Vince Wilfork. They made one of the steals of the offseason in getting a Pro Bowl caliber halfback, Corey Dillon, from the Bengals.
It's been a tough year in Dallas for Vinny Testaverde and the Cowboys.
Most scouts will tell you the most important positions are -- in no particular order -- quarterback, defensive end, left tackle, wide receiver, cornerback and running back. The key is not getting older at these key positions. Getting younger with bad players isn't the answer either, but getting older with bad players is even worse.
Look at the Dallas Cowboys. On the age scale, they're pretty good. They actually were the league's 12th youngest team entering the season with an average age of 26.40. But whether it was Bill Parcells or Jerry Jones making the decisions, here's where they went wrong.
They got older and less effective at running back replacing Troy Hambrick with Eddie George (31). All right, Hambrick isn't that great and the team needed an upgrade. He rushed for just 972 yards on 275 carries. But with rookie Julius Jones getting hurt (broken shoulder blade), George and Richie Anderson (33), two aging veterans, have left the Cowboys with no running threat. At defensive end, Marcellus Wiley (29) is older and has been less effective than the departed Ebenezer Ekuban, who wasn't signed because he didn't make enough plays. Wiley, who signed for $4 million a year, hardly makes any plays and isn't even used on passing downs.
The Cowboys got older at quarterback with Vinny Testaverde (41) replacing Quincy Carter. They got older and slower at wide receiver. They didn't do anything to replace Mario Edwards at cornerback. It's no wonder the Cowboys are floundering at 3-6. They basically got worse, older and slower at five of the key areas of the team. That's playing with fire.
Belichick didn't let that happen in New England. He made sure he had a good, young left tackle in Matt Light and locked him up with a long-term contract extension. He's been drafting heavy along the defensive line for three years and has a good young group of linemen. There is age at cornerback, but two of last year's top draft choices -- Wilson and Samuel -- were drafted as cornerbacks, so he has youth there if he wants it.
Each year, the free agency pool for good young players grows smaller because teams are doing a better job of managing the cap and keeping their core group of players. It's placing a bigger importance on building through the draft and making it tougher to build through free agency.
That's where the Redskins keep missing the point. Dan Snyder is a big free agency player. Since the start 2000, he's consistently put together one of the NFL's oldest teams. In 2000, he had the oldest team. He was ninth in 2001 and 2002 and 11th last year. This year, he's third with an average age of 27.49.
Though he's usually gotten one or two good starters out of the draft, Snyder has filled the rest of his roster with high-priced veterans. No wonder he's on his fourth coach in Joe Gibbs. Snyder is looking for instant impact from the offseason. The problem is going with veterans can burn a franchise and leave it old.
Mark Brunell was an old quarterback and played like it through nine games. Though that was Gibbs' decision, it didn't work. Washington's payroll soared above $110 million and unless there are changes during the offseason, they'll have the league's oldest team next year. Sure, the Clinton Portis trade worked. Shawn Springs, Cornelius Griffin and Marcus Washington were good signings. But the team is 3-6 and they don't have a core group of young players on the horizon.
Plus, the NFC is the ultimate tease. The conference doesn't have the depth in talent and number of quality teams that is present in the AFC. Lack of depth can mean a fast ticket to the top or a just as fast ticket to the bottom. Jon Gruden came over from the Raiders and installed enough offense to give Warren Sapp and that great Bucs defense a Super Bowl ring.
Since then, Gruden has been trying to patch things together with free-agent veterans. Tampa Bay has been 10-15 since its Super Bowl victory and has the league's oldest team at an average age of 27.81. Old teams tend to have injuries, and the Bucs have had to place a dozen players on injured reserve already this year.
The Panthers went to the Super Bowl last season with the NFL's third oldest team (27.5) and entered this season as the second oldest (27.68). They have broken down with injuries and struggled to a 2-7 start.
Youth must be served in building a team. Matt Millen had old teams in Detroit for three consecutive years. The Lions average age hovered between 27.4 and 27.5, which was crazy for a team in transition. The Lions switched their emphasis to drafting and making only one or two big signings. Now, they are a better team at 4-5 than any of the past three years, and they have gotten significantly faster and younger.
Age can be a wonderful thing, but on NFL rosters in transition, age can't be forever.
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