Minnesota has made some strides to become a bit younger this offseason. Makes sense, considering the team definitely had its share of aging veterans.
According to Football Outsiders, the Vikings had the fifth-oldest defense in the league by snap-weighted age, a stat that weighs the age of each player by the number of snaps he played in the regular season.
This means that many of the Vikings key contributors on defense were older. The defensive unit had a snap weighted age of 27.2 in 2019. The defenses ahead of the Vikings in age were the Patriots, Panthers and the Ravens, and Minnesota was tied with the Eagles at 27.2, but the Eagles were fourth, so I’m assuming the Vikings were slightly older if the outlet didn’t round to the nearest tenth and used the full decimal.
From the numbers here, the Vikings had the NFL's fifth-oldest defense in the league by snap-weighted age in 2019 (27.2 years on average). Reasonable to think that metric will look markedly different in 2020. https://t.co/WyKt8BtIhs
— Ben Goessling (@GoesslingStrib) April 9, 2020
On offense, the Vikings were a little younger at 26.3, ranking them 23rd overall on Football Outsiders.
It seems like, with the way the offseason has been going, Minnesota will likely be younger on defense next season. The team has seen cornerbacks Trae Waynes and Xavier Rhodes sign elsewhere. Waynes was 27 and Rhodes was 29. Both were starters.
Not only will the team get younger at defensive back, but it seems very possible the team will do the same on the defensive line. Linval Joseph, 31, signed with the Chargers in free agency. The Vikings signed Michael Pierce, 27, who could replace him. Also, Everson Griffen, 32, announced he was leaving in the offseason.