The mix of old and young on the Buffalo Bills roster sets the team up well in the pursuit of a playoff berth in 2019 and beyond.
Rebuilds can be painful. The Buffalo Bills appear to be avoiding the painful kind thanks to Brandon Beane having an intelligent plan in place.
The fact the Bills made the playoffs in 2017 meant Beane didn’t have to come in and clear out the entire roster. That hasn’t stopped him from bringing in a lot of his own players, but he has done well to move on from players who weren’t producing and bring in some talented replacements.
Beane has been smart to keep veterans around as well. Trying to start over with rookies and inexperienced players never goes well. It could also cause fans a great deal of pain.
Instead, Beane has kept a good mix of young and old on the roster, as seen in the below tweet.
Number of players over 30, by team: pic.twitter.com/03pP5nGnBd
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) May 26, 2019
It is always good to be high up in a category led by the New England Patriots.
Players like LeSean McCoy, Lorenzo Alexander and Jerry Hughes stand out as experienced leaders who can help the younger players navigate the ways of the NFL. This is much better than the alternative of having first-round picks come to town without a veteran leader in place to serve as a role model. Or even just someone older to talk to about literally anything.
Josh Allen may not have someone over 30 in the quarterback room right now, but he does have Matt Barkley who is 28. Barkley has been in the league since 2013 and both players got to learn a bit from Derek Anderson before his retirement.
Maybe Frank Gore can serve as the wise man of the offense.
Alexander has that role covered on defense, allowing Sean McDermott and the other coaches to put trust in their veteran leaders to keep the team on track.
Hopefully this leads to wins in 2019 and is not just something of note in the offseason.