49ers have second-oldest roster in NFL heading into 2021

While the 49ers aren’t necessarily old, per se, they do enter the 2021 season with the league’s second-oldest roster on average.

Age is just a number, right?

Well, perhaps. No other sport focuses more on age than pro football. And considering the short lifespan of NFL careers, usually hovering around 3.3 years, it makes sense why teams are always vying to get younger wherever possible.

On the surface, this doesn’t appear to apply to the San Francisco 49ers, who enter the upcoming 2021 campaign with the second-oldest roster in the entire league, according to Indianapolis Colts team writer Andrew Walker:

Per Walker, the average age of the Niners’ offseason squad is an elderly 26.33 years old. The only other team in the league with an age averaging older than San Francisco is the Houston Texans at 26.37 years old.

Of course, this number is skewed quite a bit by some of the important elder statesmen on the 49ers roster. Kicker Robbie Gould is 38 years old, while newly acquired center Alex Mack is 35 years old. Backup quarterback Josh Johnson, who has seemingly been around the league forever, is also 35 years old.

Those three constitute the oldest players on the Niners roster, while Pro Bowl left tackle Trent Williams is currently 32 years old.

Does it even matter the 49ers are old?

In short? No.

Last year, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers boasted one of the NFL’s oldest rosters headlined by 43-year-old quarterback Tom Brady, and they went on to win in Super Bowl LV. Plus, there’s the adage of how practical NFL experience can be much more valuable than youthful enthusiasm and potential.

At the same time, though, there should need to be a focus on getting younger at various positions in the not-so-distant future. Williams and Mack are both entering the latter stages of their respective careers, and San Francisco will be forced to think about getting younger along its offensive line at some point.

Yet some of the transitions have already started to take place.

The 49ers used the No. 3 overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft to grab quarterback Trey Lance, a prospect who hadn’t yet turned 21 years old before being selected. In that regard, with Lance being so young, the Niners were effectively copying an NBA strategy of grabbing younger players with the hopes of developing them at the pro level sooner, thereby hoping they can hit their prime earlier than many other older prospects.

Lance, now 21 years old, is expected to eventually replace quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who’ll turn 30 years old this season. Assuming San Francisco moves on from Jimmy G in 2022, that’ll shave off nine years from the team’s aggregate age average a year from now.