Out With the Old, In With the New?

Well, I hope everyone is enjoying their Fourth of July. Personally, I am spending it (since I don't have work today) watching the Twilight Zone marathon on the SciFi Channel, BBQing, shooting off my own fireworks, and watching Mel Gibson slaughter some redcoats in the Patriot (aim small, miss small).

But as I watch another one of Rod Serling's masterpieces, I am writing this post to talk about a certain factor that the Chiefs, and its fans, will have to consider going in to next season.

What will we do with our veteran players?

I talked briefly in a previous post about the possibility of the Chiefs letting go of veteran guard Brian Waters (age 34). It's already well known that line backer Mike Vrabel (age 35) wants to return to the Chiefs next season, but as a free agent, the Chiefs might not be that interested in bringing him back. Center Casey Wiegmann (age 37) is still contemplating retirement, and nose tackle Ron Edwards (almost 32) might be replaced for a younger player since he is a free agent.

Combined, these players account for 7 Pro Bowl appearances, 3 All-Pro selections, and 54 years of experience. They are vocal locker room leaders according to other players and coaches.

And they are all near the end of their careers.

They aren't as fast as they used to be, not as strong as they once were, and they all have replacements waiting to take over. Brian Waters has Jon Asamoah (age 22); Mike Vrabel has both Andy Studebaker and Justin Houston (age 25 and age 22 respectively); Casey Wiegmann has Rodney Hudson (age 21); and Ron Edwards has Jerrell Powe (age 24).

Entering last season, the Chiefs were already tied for seventh in the NFL for having the youngest team, coming in at an average age of 25.66 years old. After winning the AFC West last season, the Chiefs might think that they are in the position to get younger in certain positions and not suffer severe repercussions from losing veteran leadership in the locker room. After all, it seems that we have younger players stepping up into those leadership roles (Matt Cassel, Eric Berry) that can seemingly replace the leadership that would be lost.

Now, I'm not saying that we should go our separate ways with all those veterans I mentioned earlier. Hudson would benefit from being able to learn from Wiegmann and the same can be said for Powe. But Asamoah and Studebaker both already have NFL experience at their positions, so if the Chiefs decided to save some money and go with the younger players over the older ones, I wouldn't dislike that too much.