It is well-documented that the Pittsburgh Steelers have a lot of money tied up in their defense. They have some of the highest-paid players in the league at their positions such as OLB T.J. Watt and S Minkah Fitzpatrick. As the league has shifted to being dominated by offense, this approach has drawn criticism from certain pundits, but the Steelers are in the middle of a total overhaul on the offensive side of the ball.
ESPN analyst Bill Barnwell posted a list on X of all teams sorted by average age and broke it down by offense, defense, and total team age. The results show a vast difference between the Steelers’ two units.
With the full regular season in the books, he compiled the age of all players and weighted each team to the number of snaps that each player played. It isn’t necessarily reflective of the age of the entire 53-man roster, but rather focuses on the players that played.
The list confirms what we already knew—the Steelers have a very young and inexperienced offense and an old and veteran defense.
On offense, the Steelers have the third-youngest group with an average age of 26.2. On defense they have the oldest group in the league with an average age of 28.4.
The offense features six starters who are on their rookie contracts with QB Kenny Pickett, RB Najee Harris, WR George Pickens, TE Pat Freiermuth, OT Dan Moore Jr., and OT Broderick Jones all being drafted within the last few seasons. Later in the season, Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph started some games with Pickett out injured, which helped pull up the average age, but inserting Jones over Chukwuma Okorafor more or less offset that.
There are also a number of role players on rookie contracts who played significant snaps like TE Darnell Washington, TE Connor Heyward, WR Calvin Austin III, and RB Jaylen Warren.
The only starters beyond their rookie contracts on that side of the ball are OG Isaac Seumalo, OG James Daniels, WR Diontae Johnson, C Mason Cole, and WR Allen Robinson II. Trubisky and Rudolph fall in that category as well with each starting some games at the end of the season. The only players among those starters to be on their second contract with the Steelers are Johnson and Rudolph. Okorafor is on his second contract as well but was benched halfway through the season. The two oldest players are Seumalo and Robinson at age 30.
For all of the talk of the offense lacking leadership and the fading tradition of the “Steeler Way” this definitely helps add context to such discussion. Of course the tradition is going to experience some growing pains when they are the youngest and least-tenured group in the league.
It is an entirely different story on defense. The only starters still within their rookie-contract windows are CB Joey Porter Jr., ILB Mykal Walker, and DT Keeanu Benton. None of them began the season as full-time starters and Walker didn’t even open the season on the roster.
The majority of the players are on their second, third, or even fourth NFL contracts. DT Cameron Heyward played the season at age 34, CB Patrick Peterson at age 33, and S Damontae Kazee at age 30. They obviously pull the average up, but there are a number of players who will be 30 before or sometime in the early portions of the 2024 season. Watt, DE Larry Ogunjobi, and ILB Elandon Roberts are all 29 years old.
The defense is definitely in need of a youth movement to group with Porter, Benton, and ascending role players like OLB Nick Herbig to ensure the future of the group. On the flip side of the offense, the leadership on the defensive side of the ball has never been questioned. It being the oldest defense in the league adds context to that.
If you look at teams as a whole, including both sides of the ball, the Steelers have the ninth-oldest group in the NFL with an average age of 27.3.
