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49ers 53-man roster eighth youngest in NFL

The San Francisco 49ers got rid of some notable veterans in their cut down to 53 players. It has lowered their average age considerably.

The San Francisco 49ers 53-man roster is officially set, and the over-analysis can begin. We've heard all kinds of statistics thrown out there as it relates to the current roster. For example, this year's roster has 36 holdovers from last year, while last year's had 33 holdovers from 2013. Obviously the number of turnover among starters is noteworthy, but it is still an interesting factoid.

Age is also something that is frequently discussed. Somewhere in the comments people were talking about the average age of the starting lineup. I can't find the comments at this point, but I believe the offense got older on average, while the defense got younger.

As a whole however, the team has gotten younger. Jimmy Kempski over at Philly Voice put together a table breaking down the average age of each 53-man roster this year, and for each of the last three years. Here is how the 49ers broke down (league rank in parenthesis):

2015: 25.83 (8)
2014: 26.36 (22)
2013: 26.56 (25)
2012: 26.64 (27)

The 49ers got half a year younger, but shot up the average age leaderboard. While they return more players than last season, the turnover came at a lot of positions where they were getting a little long in the tooth. Cam Inman had an interesting fact in his breakdown of the 53-man roster. The 49ers roster currently contains 15 first-year players, and 8 second-year players.

The Rams lead the way on this list, with an average age of 24.94. The Seahawks rank No. 12 at 25.92. The Cardinals rank No. 22 at 26.35. The Colts come in last at 27.17. The Rams and Colts are separated by 2.23 years. Jimmy made a good point about what seems like not that big a difference. If you took the 23 oldest Colts and shaved five years off each of their ages, their roster still would not be as young as the Rams.