The offseason for the Seattle Seahawks has brought significant change to the roster, with the departures of long time Pro Bowl starters Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner to the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Rams, respectively. In the wake of these losses, the team is looking forward to the future with a roster stocked full of recent draft picks and undrafted free agents as the Hawks look to the future.
How the team fares against competition in the wake of these changes won’t be known until the squad takes the field in September, however, what is known is that it was time for the team to move in a younger direction. Specifically, the Seahawks roster in 2021 was, for the second year in a row, the eighth oldest roster in the league.
Which teams have had the oldest and youngest initial 53 over the last nine seasons?
Left-most bar is 2013, right-most bar is 2021. pic.twitter.com/k3fEtlXVxR
— Anthony Reinhard (@reinhurdler) June 4, 2022
That said, even though the Hawks had a roster that was in the top quartile across the league for age, it was at the same time the second youngest roster in the NFC West. The Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers are apparently running recruitment for retirement homes or something, as they each had a roster that was among the five oldest in the NFL in 2021.
Now, for the youth movement to be effective, the Hawks will need to actually let the youngsters see the field. The team has had rosters filled with youth in the past, such as in 2019, but have often opted to play more experienced veterans over younger players, resulting in the appearance of a youth movement that wasn’t actually taking place.
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