After each of the last six years, I’ve presented the AV-adjusted age of each roster in the NFL. Measuring team age in the NFL is tricky. You don’t want to calculate the average age of a 53-man roster and call that the “team age” because the age of a team’s starters is much more relevant than the age of a team’s reserves. The average age of a team’s starting lineup isn’t perfect, either. The age of the quarterback and key offensive and defensive players should count for more than the age of a less relevant starter. Ideally, you want to calculate a team’s average age by placing greater weight on the team’s most relevant players.

My solution has been to use the Approximate Value numbers from Pro-Football-Reference.com, and to calculate age using each player’s precise age as of September 1 of the year in question. Today, we will look at offenses; tomorrow, we will crunch these same numbers for team defenses. The table below shows the average AV-adjusted age of each offense, along with its total number of points of AV. In 2017, the Browns, Jaguars, and Texans were the three youngest offenses, with Cleveland really standing out.

Rk Team AV Avg Age 1 Cleveland Browns 64 25.2 2 Jacksonville Jaguars 101 25.8 3 Houston Texans 88 26.1 4 Los Angeles Rams 130 26.3 5 Carolina Panthers 115 26.3 6 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 98 26.3 7 Chicago Bears 76 26.3 8 Seattle Seahawks 97 26.4 9 Indianapolis Colts 80 26.5 10 Dallas Cowboys 110 26.6 11 Tennessee Titans 93 26.7 12 Kansas City Chiefs 127 26.7 13 New York Giants 70 26.7 14 Cincinnati Bengals 88 26.9 15 Green Bay Packers 101 27 16 Detroit Lions 107 27 17 Minnesota Vikings 116 27.1 18 Miami Dolphins 78 27.1 19 Philadelphia Eagles 124 27.2 20 Washington Redskins 95 27.2 21 Denver Broncos 74 27.2 22 San Francisco 49ers 97 27.5 23 Baltimore Ravens 99 27.6 24 Los Angeles Chargers 106 27.7 25 Oakland Raiders 99 27.8 26 New Orleans Saints 135 27.9 27 Pittsburgh Steelers 123 27.9 28 Atlanta Falcons 118 28 29 New York Jets 84 28.2 30 Buffalo Bills 89 28.3 31 New England Patriots 143 28.4 32 Arizona Cardinals 74 29.1

How did the Browns get there? The table below shows every player on Cleveland’s offense last year to record any points of AV, along with their September 1st age. The final column is the product of their percentage of offensive AV multiplied by their 9/1 age; if you sum those numbers, you get the AV-adjusted average age of the offense. There were a few really young players (Kizer, Njoku) who helped, but the lack of contribution from anyone older than 28 is what moved the needle:

And this year, Cleveland is once again going to be really young on offense, especially after using three premium draft picks on players (although all three are somewhat old for rookies; all will be 23 by the end of 2018). In addition to taking quarterback Baker Mayfield with the first overall pick in the Draft, the Browns also spent the 33rd pick on interior lineman Austin Corbett (he turns 23 in the December) and the 35th pick on RB Nick Chubb (also turns 23 in December).

The Browns made some veteran acquisitions, but they still only signed younger players. Cleveland added former Dolphins wide receiver Jarvis Landry (turns 26 in November) and ex-49ers running back Carlos Hyde (turning 28 in September). The team is littered with young talent in Gordon, Landry, Njoku, Johnson, and Chubb at the skill positions, even after trading Coleman to the Bills last night for a draft pick. And the offense line is full of players in their 20s, even after signing ex-Steeler Chris Hubbard (27) to play right tackle. Quarterback Tyrod Taylor (29) and backup TE Darren Fells (32) are the only players on offense expected to contribute who were born before 1990.

On the flip side, we have the 2017 Cardinals. Larry Fitzgerald (34.0), A.Q. Shipley (31.2), Carson Palmer (37.7), Alex Boone (30.3) and Jared Veldheer (30.3) helped make Arizona the oldest offense in football last season. Palmer, Boone, and Veldheer are gone, although the offensive line won’t be much younger by bringing back Mike Iupati (31) adding Justin Pugh (28) from New York and Andre Smith (31) from Cincinnati.