This year’s NFL playoffs have affirmed some conventional wisdom.
The best quarterbacks take their teams the farthest. Running the ball, whether through a MVP-caliber running back such as the Eagles’ Saquon Barkley or a dual-threat passer such as the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, remains critical.
There’s another football axiom that rang true in this year’s playoffs, and also stood in stark contrast to how this year’s 14-win Vikings team operated.
You’ve heard it before, say it with me: It’s a young man’s game.
The Vikings were the NFL’s oldest team this year with a snap-weighted age of 28.3, according to an ESPN analysis that weighed the age of each player by how many snaps they played. That obviously made them the oldest team in this year’s playoffs. They had the oldest defense both in the regular season and in the 27-9 wild-card playoff loss to the Rams, starting an average and median age of 29 years old.
Some of their oldest players, such as 34-year-old cornerback Stephon Gilmore, were feeling exhaustion by the end of the year. Despite a strong regular season that saw them lead the NFL with 24 interceptions and rank fifth in points allowed, the Vikings defense allowed the Lions to rattle off three consecutive touchdown drives at the end of the Week 18 loss. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford then completed 10 straight passes and threw for 124 first-quarter yards to open the playoff loss. Obviously, the Vikings offense also provided little help by season’s end.
Getting younger won’t be easy for a Vikings franchise that currently has only three draft picks in April: a first-round choice and two fifth-round selections. The Vikings are projected to get a third-round compensatory pick for quarterback Kirk Cousins leaving in free agency.
Gilmore is one of the Vikings’ many free agents this year, and he’s one of two starting defensive backs considering retirement, including safety Harrison Smith. Gilmore, the former AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year, said he hasn’t considered walking away until now.