“Old and slow”, those were the words used by Warren Sapp back in 2011 to describe the Steelers defense after a week one drubbing at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens. He restated those words again in 2013 when asked by Dan Patrick about the Steelers defense, this time adding “Because seven of the 11 starters are 28 years or older, and that’s around the time, in this league, they go to questioning, you know, ‘Where’s his legs? Should we look for the backup?’ And Brett Keisel, bless his soul, No. 99 in your program, No. 1 in your heart, he turns 35 the first month of the year. And three of the four secondary guys there are 32 years old or older.”

Dare we say that Warren Sapp might have been onto something, might he have seen what we didn’t want to see? In 2011, the Steelers held the number one defensive ranking in terms of passing defense, overall defense (yards allowed) and scoring defense and a record of 12-4 with a trip to the playoffs. So we all looked at Mr. Sapp’s claims of “old and slow” and scoffed. 2012 had the Steelers once again rank first in overall defense and passing defense, but slipped to 6th in scoring defense and a sub par 8-8 finish to their campaign. We still looked at our defense as a strength and Dick LeBeau as the guru that can work his magic regardless of the aging defense.

In 2013, our aging defense suffered through a difficult season marred by injuries and inconsistent play on the defensive side of the ball. The defense fell to the 20th in overall defense, 24th in passing defense and 19th in terms of scoring defense, thus the 8-8 record and another year of no playoffs.

So let’s look at the team in terms of age. In 2011, the Steelers had the oldest defense in the league, the 13th oldest offense, with an overall team average age ranking as the oldest in the league. As the team made changes in the off season, the average age of the team dropped, but the defense was still the oldest in the league, the offense and the infusion of new lineman saw the average age of the offense drop to the 25th spot while the overall team age dipped to 5th in the league. Another off season lead to more old faces leaving and new faces taking their spots, the defense fell to 3rd in average age, while the offense gained some experience and moved up to 20th, the average age of the entire team falling to 10th. The question is what do all these rankings really mean?

Entering last season, the Steelers were the oldest team in the AFC North, the Ravens were not far behind with the Bengals a little below the league average and the Browns being one of the youngest teams in the league. Obviously age isn’t the only factor in building a winner as can be seen by the Browns; however the Seahawks, reigning Super Bowl Champs, were the 4th youngest team in the league.

A few conclusions can be drawn from the analysis of age in terms of NFL success; first, being an NFL player is a demanding job both physically and mentally and while the age of a player is an important factor, obviously the right mix of youth, experience and maturity all play a role in individual and team success. Secondly, knowing how to read a player’s development as he ages from promising young player to solid NFL player and eventually to a fading veteran is vital to continued success. Finally, having the ability to recognize upcoming needs, draft or add younger free agents accordingly, account for their growth/development and severe ties with the aging veterans. Over the next few weeks, we will look at the Steelers ability to do just that, analyze each position group, see how we made the adjustments to our roster over the past few seasons, what we did well, where we struggled and how we look as we head into the 2014 season.