The Chicago Bears find themselves to be one of the younger teams in the NFL
Ryan Poles has changed the team drastically from the last regime. This team has gone from the oldest team in the NFL to now being one of the youngest. Had I written this prior to the waiver claims, the team would have been tied as the 10th-oldest team in the NFL. That doesn’t sound bad when there are 32 teams, right? Well, this just further proves my point on how focusing on a team’s average age can be silly.
Even as the 10th-oldest team, there would have been 21 other teams with a younger roster than the Chicago Bears. Yeah, that’s how many teams have basically the same averages when it comes to age. The vast differences could come down to months of each player. For example, if a team has more players who are 25 years old, but will be 26 within a couple of months would technically be an older roster than a team that has more players who are 25 years old, but won’t be 26 for nine-plus months.
Well, this data was provided prior to the Chicago Bears waiver claims and as you all know, Ryan Poles did not hesitate to make some claims. The team claimed six players on the initial cutdown day and then added a couple more the day after. Moving players like Michael Schofield (32) off the roster definitely helps the average age of the team when you are adding guys who are still on their rookie deals.
After the departures and additions, the Chicago Bears roster dropped from 26.0 to 25.7 in average age. This moved the team to seventh in the NFL and tied them with two other teams (Panthers and Eagles). Now, only seven other teams have younger rosters than the Bears. This shows you once again how close teams’ rosters are when it comes to their average ages.
Side note: The Bears had the exact same average age of 25.7 in 2018 when the team went 12-4 and won the NFC North.