If there was one prevailing theme throughout the Jacksonville Jaguars 2014 season, it had to be youth. The Jaguars came into the 2014 season with the 2nd youngest roster in the NFL, and the offensive side of the ball in particular had a historic amount of rookie contributors. The result was extremely inconsistent play, a lack of points, and, ultimately, the firing of offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch. The young players showed some flashes, but the reality was the offense was just plain bad.

I recently came across a very interest tweet/stat from Football Outsiders stating that the Jaguars had the youngest offense since 2006.

2014 Jaguars were NFL's youngest offense since at least 2006. Snap-weighted age of 24.7 http://t.co/9aw26CWpuz @TonyKhan — Scott Kacsmar (@FO_ScottKacsmar) April 22, 2015

Here’s the short blurb in the article about the Jacksonville offense in 2014.

Jacksonville went in the other direction. After ranking 32nd in offensive DVOA, the team dumped Maurice Jones-Drew for younger running backs, drafted Blake Bortles and surrounded him with three young receivers (Marqise Lee, Allen Robinson and Allen Hurns). The offensive line also started multiple rookies, leading to a league-high decrease of 1.9 in SWA. The end result was a ranking of 31st in DVOA (32nd in passing). The offense helped make the Jaguars the youngest team in the league, and adding a 27-year-old Julius Thomas should only help maintain that. Marcedes Lewis (31) hadn’t shined since the 2010 season. We have SWA data back to 2006 and the Jaguars are the youngest offense (24.7) on record.

The Jaguars had the youngest offense on record, and I would wager that the Jaguars probably had one of the 2 or 3 youngest offenses in the modern era. What this all means is hard to decipher, but at the very least we can conclude that the Jaguars need to give these young players more time to develop and grow together. The young receivers showed some promise, the offensive line started to play better towards the end of the season, and Julius Thomas adds a much needed element in the passing game, but the determining factor in the success of this team is without a doubt the progress of Blake Bortles. The Jaguars are surrounding him with help – now it’s up to him.