It’s been famously said that “youth is wasted on the young.” But George Bernard Shaw was a curmudgeonly old man when he said it, and it’s painfully obvious that the Irish author never had the opportunity to watch today’s crop of astonishingly-gifted-but-fresh-faced athletes ply their trade on the gridiron.
While modern fans always marvel at the agelessness of the Tom Bradys, Jason Wittens, and Adam Vinatieris of the 21st century NFL, they are the exceptions. Pro football remains, by and large, a young man’s game.
And while the 2022 rookie class is eager to make their mark on the league when the season kicks off in September, it’s worth taking a look at the players who were in their cleats not that long ago.
Pro Football Focus has put together a list of the top 25 players who will still be under age 25 when the upcoming season begins. The Cowboys appear to have a solid foundation on which to build their future; they have three players on the list. (Only Tampa Bay can say the same, and just three other teams are represented more than once.)