July 05, 2015

Eagles age inventory, Part III: Defensive backs

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

Bill Kostroun/AP

Malcolm Jenkins leads the ninth youngest secondary in the NFL.

With the NFL's free agency period and the draft in the books, NFL teams will continue to tweak their rosters, but for the most part, we can make educated guesses at this point on who each teams' projected starters will be. Earlier this offseason, we took some inventory on Eagles' players' ages, broken up by positional groups, starting with the offense. In cased you missed those, you can find them here:

• Offensive skill positions

• Offensive line

Today we'll look at the defensive secondary. As the chart below shows, the Eagles are tied for the 23rd oldest (or ninth youngest) secondary in the NFL:

Rank	Team	Average Age - DBs
Oldest	Colts	30
2	Lions	29.5
3	Raiders	28.5
4	Redskins	28.5
5	Bengals	27.75
5	Browns	27.75
5	Chargers	27.75
5	Saints	27.75
5	Titans	27.75
10	Cowboys	27.5
10	Dolphins	27.5
10	Seahawks	27.5
10	Texans	27.5
14	Broncos	27.25
14	Falcons	27.25
14	Jets	27.25
17	Bears	27
17	Steelers	27
19	49ers	26.75
19	Ravens	26.75
21	Chiefs	26.25
21	Panthers	26.25
23	Eagles	25.75
23	Patriots	25.75
25	Bills	25.5
26	Buccaneers	25.25
27	Giants	25
27	Jaguars	25
27	Packers	25
30	Rams	24.5
30	Vikings	24.5
Youngest	Cardinals	24.25

• For the Eagles we projected the following starting secondary: Byron Maxwell (27), Eric Rowe (22), Malcolm Jenkins (27), and Walter Thurmond (27). Age is not a concern for the Eagles in their secondary. It's more about whether those players will be good or not.

• Of the four projected starters, Rowe is the most likely projection to be incorrect. He'll battle it out with Nolan Carroll (28) in training camp for the starting job opposite Maxwell. So far Rowe has looked good in OTAs and minicamp, and has impressed the coaching staff. If the competition is even close, I think the Eagles would be wise to let Rowe play, take his lumps early, learn from them, and be a smarter player for the stretch run.

• Thurmond is the other question mark, but he is the clear-cut favorite to win the starting safety job opposite Malcolm Jenkins.

• We noted Nolan Carroll and Brandon Boykin in the list of players below, just to show where they would fall age-wise in comparison to the rest of the league.

• It feels like Malcolm Jenkins has been in the NFL for longer than he has, especially the way he has taken on a leadership role in Philly, but he's right around the middle of the pack in the NFL in terms of age, at 27.

• There were more starting DBs over the age of 30 than I would have thought. 23 projected starting DBs are over the age of 30, and three more will turn 30 in July.

• The average projected starting DB is 26.81 years old, and the difference between corners and safeties is very little. The average projected starting CB is 26.85 years old. The average projected starting safety is 26.77 years old. Technically, on average, they're actually older than that since we're not calculating to the exact day, but you get the idea.

• If you look at some of the older safeties in the league, many of them played CB earlier in their careers. For example, three of the four oldest safeties listed below (Charles Woodson, Mike Adams, Antrel Rolle) all at one time played corner. If Eric Rowe turns out to be a good player who has a long career at CB, whenever he begins to lose a step he could move to the back end because of his size. By then he'll be far removed from the days he played safety in college, so I'm not sure how much that experience will help him by then, but the fact that he played safety for three years at Utah could give more teams more confidence that he has the skill set to make that move when he ages.

• Here's the entire list of projected starting corners and safeties, league-wide:

Rank	Player	Pos	Team	Birthday	Age
1	Charles Woodson	S	Raiders	10/7/76	38
2	Rashean Mathis	CB	Lions	8/27/80	34
3	Mike Adams	S	Colts	3/24/81	34
4	Roman Harper	S	Panthers	12/11/82	32
5	Antrel Rolle	S	Bears	12/16/82	32
6	Tramon Williams	CB	Browns	3/16/83	32
7	Brent Grimes	CB	Dolphins	7/19/83	31
8	Reggie Nelson	S	Bengals	9/21/83	31
9	DeAngelo Hall	CB	Redskins	11/19/83	31
10	James Ihedigbo	S	Lions	12/3/83	31
11	Tim Jennings	CB	Bears	12/24/83	31
12	Antonio Cromartie	CB	Jets	4/15/84	31
13	Johnathan Joseph	CB	Texans	4/16/84	31
14	Antoine Bethea	S	49ers	7/27/84	30
15	Brandon Browner	CB	Saints	8/2/84	30
16	Dashon Goldson	S	Redskins	9/18/84	30
17	Leon Hall	CB	Bengals	12/9/84	30
18	Cary Williams	CB	Seahawks	12/23/84	30
19	William Gay	CB	Steelers	1/1/85	30
20	Greg Toler	CB	Colts	1/2/85	30
21	Eric Weddle	S	Chargers	1/4/85	30
21	Michael Griffin	S	Titans	1/4/85	30
23	William Moore	S	Falcons	5/18/85	30
24	Darrelle Revis	CB	Jets	7/14/85	29
25	Donte Whitner	S	Browns	7/24/85	29
26	Husain Abdullah	S	Chiefs	7/27/85	29
27	Leodis McKelvin	CB	Bills	9/1/85	29
28	Lardarius Webb	CB	Ravens	10/12/85	29
29	Charles Godfrey	S	Falcons	11/15/85	29
30	Glover Quin	S	Lions	1/15/86	29
31	Dwight Lowery	S	Colts	1/23/86	29
32	Aqib Talib	CB	Broncos	2/13/86	29
33	Brandon Flowers	CB	Chargers	2/18/86	29
34	Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie	CB	Giants	4/7/86	29
35	Keenan Lewis	CB	Saints	5/17/86	29
36	Brandon Carr	CB	Cowboys	5/19/86	29
37	Kendrick Lewis	S	Ravens	6/16/86	29
38	Jimmy Wilson	S	Chargers	7/30/86	28
39	Jairus Byrd	S	Saints	10/7/86	28
40	T.J. Ward	S	Broncos	12/12/86	28
41	Perrish Cox	CB	Titans	1/7/87	28
N/A	Nolan Carroll	CB	Eagles	1/18/87	28
42	Orlando Scandrick	CB	Cowboys	2/10/87	28
43	Shareece Wright	CB	49ers	4/8/87	28
44	Louis Delmas	S	Dolphins	4/11/87	28
45	Mike Mitchell	S	Steelers	6/10/87	28
46	Sean Smith	CB	Chiefs	7/14/87	27
47	Stevie Brown	S	Texans	7/17/87	27
48	Jerraud Powers	CB	Cardinals	7/19/87	27
49	Walter Thurmond	S	Eagles	8/12/87	27
50	Jason McCourty	CB	Titans	8/13/87	27
50	Devin McCourty	S	Patriots	8/13/87	27
52	Ron Parker	S	Chiefs	8/17/87	27
53	Patrick Chung	S	Patriots	8/19/87	27
54	Nate Allen	S	Raiders	11/30/87	27
55	Sam Shields	CB	Packers	12/8/87	27
56	Josh Norman	CB	Panthers	12/15/87	27
57	Malcolm Jenkins	S	Eagles	12/20/87	27
58	Da'Norris Searcy	S	Titans	1/16/88	27
59	Barry Church	S	Cowboys	2/11/88	27
60	Byron Maxwell	CB	Eagles	2/23/88	27
61	Reshad Jones	S	Dolphins	2/25/88	27
62	Richard Sherman	CB	Seahawks	3/30/88	27
63	Kam Chancellor	S	Seahawks	4/3/88	27
64	Kareem Jackson	CB	Texans	4/10/88	27
65	Sergio Brown	S	Jaguars	5/22/88	27
66	Vontae Davis	CB	Colts	5/27/88	27
67	Jeron Johnson	S	Redskins	6/12/88	27
68	Jimmy Smith	CB	Ravens	7/26/88	26
69	Darian Stewart	S	Broncos	8/4/88	26
70	Chris Culliver	CB	Redskins	8/17/88	26
71	Tramaine Brock	CB	49ers	8/20/88	26
72	Janoris Jenkins	CB	Rams	10/29/88	26
72	Cortez Allen	CB	Steelers	10/29/88	26
74	Robert Alford	CB	Falcons	11/1/88	26
75	Marcus Gilchrist	S	Jets	11/14/88	26
76	Alterraun Verner	CB	Buccaneers	12/13/88	26
77	Chris Conte	S	Buccaneers	1/10/89	26
78	Morgan Burnett	S	Packers	1/13/89	26
79	Harrison Smith	S	Vikings	2/2/89	26
80	J.J. Wilcox	S	Cowboys	2/14/89	26
81	Joe Haden	CB	Browns	4/14/89	26
82	Earl Thomas	S	Seahawks	5/7/89	26
83	Prince Amukamara	CB	Giants	6/6/89	26
84	Chris Harris	CB	Broncos	6/18/89	26
85	Robert Blanton	S	Vikings	9/7/89	25
86	Casey Hayward	CB	Packers	9/9/89	25
87	Rahim Moore	S	Texans	9/22/89	25
88	Johnthan Banks	CB	Buccaneers	10/3/89	25
89	Dre Kirkpatrick	CB	Bengals	10/26/89	25
90	Malcolm Butler	CB	Patriots	3/2/90	25
91	Dwayne Gratz	CB	Jaguars	3/8/90	25
92	George Iloka	S	Bengals	3/31/90	25
93	Aarom Williams	S	Bills	4/23/90	25
94	Xavier Rhodes	CB	Vikings	6/19/90	25
95	Rodney McLeod	S	Rams	6/23/90	25
96	D.J. Hayden	CB	Raiders	6/27/90	25
97	Patrick Peterson	CB	Cardinals	7/11/90	24
N/A	Brandon Boykin	CB	Eagles	7/13/90	24
98	Travis Carrie	CB	Raiders	7/28/90	24
99	Jonathan Cyprien	S	Jaguars	7/29/90	24
100	Tashaun Gipson	S	Browns	8/7/90	24
101	Desmond Trufant	CB	Falcons	9/10/90	24
102	Stephon Gilmore	CB	Bills	9/19/90	24
103	Jamar Taylor	CB	Dolphins	9/29/90	24
104	Duke Williams	S	Bills	10/15/90	24
105	Kenny Vaccaro	S	Saints	11/1/90	24
106	Bradley McDougald	S	Buccaneers	11/15/90	24
107	Darius Slay	CB	Lions	1/1/91	24
108	T.J. McDonald	S	Rams	1/26/91	24
109	Shamarko Thomas	S	Steelers	2/1/91	24
110	Logan Ryan	CB	Patriots	2/9/91	24
111	Demetrius McCray	CB	Jaguars	5/11/91	24
112	Jason Verrett	CB	Chargers	5/13/91	24
113	Nat Berhe	S	Giants	7/6/91	24
114	Bene Benwikere	CB	Panthers	9/3/91	23
115	Matt Elam	S	Ravens	9/21/91	23
116	Eric Reid	S	49ers	10/10/91	23
117	Kyle Fuller	CB	Bears	2/16/92	23
118	E.J. Gaines	CB	Rams	2/23/92	23
119	Tyrann Mathieu	S	Cardinals	5/13/92	23
120	Tre Boston	S	Panthers	6/25/92	23
121	Calvin Pryor	S	Jets	7/2/92	23
122	Trae Waynes	CB	Vikings	7/25/92	22
123	Brock Vereen	S	Bears	8/17/92	22
124	Deone Bucannon	S	Cardinals	8/30/92	22
125	Eric Rowe	CB	Eagles	10/3/92	22
126	Ha Ha Clinton-Dix	S	Packers	12/21/92	22
127	Marcus Peters	CB	Chiefs	1/9/93	22
128	Landon Collins	S	Giants	1/10/94	21