Getty Dan Campbell looks on during the Lions vs. Colts preseason game in 2021.
The Detroit Lions have seen plenty of trends shake out as it relates to their roster, but one of the biggest is the age of the players coming into the mix.
More often than not, when the Lions make a signing or a trade this offseason, it’s been for a younger player with upside. As the team gets set to start another year on the field, the numbers behind this are becoming quite stark and hard to ignore.
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As Tim Twentyman of DetroitLions.com pointed out on Twitter, the Lions suddenly decreased their roster age in a big way. Their team’s average age is hovering at just over 24 years old. The number of players who are age 30 or above has been slashed down dramatically, and things have been turned over halfway in terms of who has stayed and gone from last season.
Couple quick observations looking over Lions roster:
1. Average age 24.6 – got younger
2. 24 new players on 53 (nearly 50 percent turnover)
3. Only 4 players age 30 or over (Brockers, Collins Sr., Fells and Nick Williams)
If it was change that Lions fans wanted from the past, they have received it from the new regime in a big way considering these facts. Perhaps more interesting than the numbers is the explanation from the team’s brain trust as to their implications.
Brad Holmes: Young Lions Earned Roster Roles
Seeing this raw data, it’s hard to imagine how this isn’t a youth movement or some kind of stated goal from the front office, but Detroit general manager Brad Holmes insists that is simply not the case. As he said while meeting with the media on Thursday, September 2, in the future, the Lions might decide to target a veteran player if he is available on the market, and youth hasn’t been the overwhelming goal for the team.
“It’s hard to predict the future, we like where we’re at right now. But, because we can’t predict the future, we just have to see how things shake out in a lot of different areas. There will be roster movement, that’s just the life of the NFL,” Holmes said. “With the youth movement, we didn’t set out to get young. These young guys just happened to perform very well and they were part of the best 53 players we decided on for this football team. We’re not going to add and say ‘he better be young.’ If he’s a veteran player that’s the best fit for us, that’s where we’ll go.”
Holmes has referred to the job in Detroit as a “retool” multiple times, so this theory on how to do it is an interesting one. If it’s mere coincidence that the Lions have added more young players with upside, it’s certainly notable indeed. What the Lions do lack in experience in 2021 they make up for in exuberance, something Dan Campbell admitted is a huge goal for the franchise to find.
“If you have talent and you are young and hungry, it’s hard to ignore those guys. That’s what we feel we’ve got a lot of,” Campbell explained. “I would rather make that move than maybe some guys who know what’s going on but they’re past their due. They don’t have it anymore, it’s not worth it, you know. That’s just where we’re at.”
The overwhelming theme for players? If you want to make it with this Lions team, you’ve got to earn it, no matter how old you are.
Taylor Decker Sees Lions as ‘Really Young Team’
This week, no player may have exemplified the changes more than offensive lineman Taylor Decker. Decker is still young at 28 and a relatively new Lion with his rookie year coming in 2016, but by the standards of this new Detroit roster, that age all but almost qualifies him for a wheelchair. It’s a fact that was not lost on him this week when speaking with the media on Monday, August 30.
This roster transformation into one of the younger teams in the league has Decker’s attention in a big way, but he knows it can be a good thing in time for the team.
“We have a really young team. When I first got here, obviously, there were guys in their 30s and now we may only have a couple, I joke I am 32 but I am not. Much like the change thing, that is the name of the game. You’ve got to fight to maintain that level of performance and fight to stay on teams. For whatever reasons they move on from guys and trade guys or whatever it may be. But I’m happy. I’m a guy who’s still here. I want to be here and I want to see this team be a winner,” he explained.
Mixing veterans with that mindset to go with excitable young players seems to be the blueprint in Detroit, and already, the Lions have succeeded in a near complete turnover of the roster in multiple ways.
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