The 2013 KC Chiefs: The Youth Movement And A 53% Solution
By Laddie Morse
The 2013 Kansas City Chiefs roster has been set. What jumps out the most about the Chiefs roster is that they kept 10 rookies. Ten. The Chiefs were already young but, now they are the team of the future simply because for 20% of the roster, their whole future is still in front of them.
The average years of NFL experience of the 2013 KC Chiefs is now 3.7.
The Chiefs have one player with 10 or more years of experience and that’s CB Dunta Robinson (10). They have ten players, with more than 6 years of experience.
So, was this by design? Did Andy Reid and John Dorsey set out to make the Chiefs younger from the outset?
Reid and Dorsey have said from the beginning that they will draft, keep and start the best players available and for one of the first times since I’ve been a Chiefs fans… and that goes a ways back… it appears to me that they have done exactly that.
It just so happens that the players they kept are young and talented… and that should excite Chiefs Nation!
When looking back over the Chiefs 2013 draft picks only 6th rounder FB Braden Wilson was not kept. That means the Chiefs kept all seven other draft picks plus three undrafted free agents:
QB Tyler Bray
S Bradley McDougald
LB/DE Josh Martin
Other notable changes were to the starting lineups. On the OL, rookie Eric Fisher takes over for Eric Winston. Alex Smith will start where Matt Cassel once stood and TE Anthony Fasano has taken over the Kevin Boss/Tony Moeaki spot. Fisher brings youth to the line while Fasano is the old man with 8 years of experience.
On defense, Dontari Poe takes over for Anthony Toribio as the starter at NT. Glenn Dorsey exits and Mike DeVito steps in. Mike LB Jovan Belcher will be replaced by Akeem Jordan and the 2012 opening day cornerback Stanford Routt will be replaced by Sean Smith.
Overall the starting lineup hasn’t gotten younger. However, youth and the future have been served and so has the rate of personnel turnover.
The Chiefs will have 28 new faces on their 53 man roster (now that Edgar Jones has been traded for milk money to Jerry Jones and the Cowboys) that weren’t there on opening day in 2012.
28 new Chiefs will make up the Chiefs 53 man roster which equals 53%. That’s a 53% solution for Reid and Dorsey and it’s one very quick way to detach themselves from the team that went 2-12.
When you start a youth movement… there are going to be new faces. That’s the Chiefs now: filled with new and young faces alike.
Go Chiefs!
What do you think Addicts? Are you happy with the youth movement and the new squad?