Once the final rosters were all set Friday, Jimmy Kempski got down to doing some math. He figured out the average age of the 53-man rosters of each team in the NFL, and the Philadelphia Eagles turn out to have the second-youngest team in the entire league, younger by average age than any team but the St. Louis Rams. The average age of the players on the Eagles' roster is 25.55 years.
Now, this may cut against the perception of the Eagles as a win-now team, but the Packers and Patriots, who are popular Super Bowl favorites, are the fifth-youngest and ninth-youngest teams, respectively. I think it says more about where the Eagles are in their team building. When I spoke with general manager Howie Roseman in training camp, he rattled off the names of all the key players from the Eagles team that lost the NFC Championship Game to Arizona just three and a half years ago that are no longer on the team. Remarkable, when you go back and look at it, and it speaks to the fact that the Eagles have spent the past three seasons rebuilding on the fly while still contending and, for the most part, making playoff appearances.
Not that this means you should expect any less from this year's Eagles. They believe they can be as good as anyone in the league and they intend to do just that if they can keep everybody healthy and figure out a way to hold their fourth-quarter leads this time around. It's just interesting that a team of which so much is expected this year also ranks among the youngest in the league. If this Eagles team really does have the ability to make a Super Bowl run, you could make the case that they're set up to keep doing so for a while. Whod'a thunk? Michael Vick really may have put some thought into that "dynasty" remark after all.