Brad Holmes recently spoke on the concerns of drafting older players in the upcoming 2026 NFL draft. Holmes’ concerns included accumulation of injuries, wear-and-tear, and the age at the start of the second contract. Holmes is not the only NFL GM to feel this way.
Ravens general manager, Eric DeCosta, in his pre-draft press conference, echoed many of the same sentiments regarding age.
“There is a new, a changing dynamic that we’ve seen with the draft. Players are older. I think the average age of the players is not necessarily older, but I think what we’re seeing now, there are more older players in the draft.
So, we’re seeing more 24- and 25-year-old players, and that’s something that’s because of COVID initially, and now because of NIL, guys are staying in, because they’re getting paid to stay in. That’s problematic in some ways for us because these guys are coming in older. They probably have less upside. They’re probably not three-contract players, in some cases, they’re two-contract players.
And in some cases, they have more injuries, because they’ve been playing college football longer, so they’ve taken on more injuries. And so, we’re trying to get a handle on that, I think in some ways. It’s tough for us to kind of assess what that means. It’s kind of something that we’ve really seen over the last three years.
This will be the third year, so ’24, ’25 and ’26. We’ve seen, actually, probably players – we might have had 4% of our players on the draft board, 24 and a half or older prior to 2024. Now that number’s up to 18%. So, we’ve seen about a 14% increase in older players on the draft board, and that’s something that we don’t really understand fully and what that means.
I don’t think it’s a good thing, certainly, but historically, we’ve tried to draft younger players when we can. That’s been something that we feel strongly [about], but now we’ve got 18% of the draft board that’s over 24 years old. So, that’s going to change the way that maybe we target players.” – Eric DeCosta
Here is an excerpt from my Brad Holmes pre-draft press conference analysis on medical reasons why age is important:
Holmes clearly recognizes age is an important component of the draft evaluation, which I wholeheartedly agree with. Age is something that simply should not be overlooked. Here are some health reasons why:
Keep all this in mind as you fill out your mock drafts. Teams like the Ravens and Lions will strongly favor younger players.
For more Lions coverage, follow us on X, @TheLionsWire, and give our Facebook page a like. Follow Jimmy on X, @JimmyLiaoMD
This article originally appeared on Lions Wire: Ravens GM Eric DeCosta echoes Lions’ NFL draft age concerns
Reporting by Jimmy Liao, MD, Lions Wire / Lions Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
