Teams with top talent under 25 years old.
 

We are 29.

This is grabbing for straws here.

29. Kansas City Chiefs
2020 ranking: 11
Blue-chip players: RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire
Notable graduated players: QB Patrick Mahomes, FS Juan Thornhill, DT Derrick Nnadi

When the best player in the game turns 25, you're going to drop in a ranking of under-25 talent. That's exactly what happens with Kansas City now that Patrick Mahomes has aged out of this ranking. He does leave behind a few talented young players, but nobody who has yet to start 16 games in a season.

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The closest is 22-year-old running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who started 13 games for the Chiefs as a rookie in 2020. You might be surprised to learn that Edwards-Helaire had a below-average DVOA as both a runner and a receiver in his rookie year, pretty tough to do in that Kansas City offense. Mecole Hardman, a 23-year-old speedster, did better in our efficiency stats, although his yards per caption dropped from 20.7 as a rookie to 13.7 in his second season.


The Kansas City offensive line could start two younger players this season, depending on how camp battles work out. Second-round center Creed Humphrey is 22 years old, while possible right tackle Lucas Niang -- a 2020 third-round pick who opted out of his rookie season -- is 23.

Willie Gay is expected to step into a larger linebacker role at age 23, but he'll need to clean up his tackling; his 22% missed tackle rate last season was 92nd out of 112 qualifying linebackers (min. 20 solo tackles). His pass coverage was strong in a limited sample. Also strong in pass coverage in a limited sample was 24-year-old cornerback L'Jarius Sneed, who allowed just 5.1 yards per pass target in the nine games he played in 2020.

And there's even more young talent on the defense if the Chiefs can get something out of former Giants first-round pick DeAndre Baker. Baker, a 23-year-old cornerback, was cut by the Giants because of off-field issues and picked up late in the season by Kansas City, so he played only two games last year.

I mean, we’ve been the best franchise in the league over the last 3 seasons. We’ve also traded a couple first round picks for Clark and Brown JR.

If you don’t have many first round picks and you’re picking at the end of each round, then you can expect to rank pretty low.

This doesn’t surprise me.

After the season, I guarantee people will feel a lot differently about the young talent on this team.

Not surprising, we've probably had among the least draft capital at our disposal the past 3-4 years with the low draft picks and trading of picks. There are a number of young players that have the chance to prove themselves this year. Also, going forward probably going to eventually cut back on the trades for veteran players and find a way to stockpile draft picks the way New England has often done.

Hardman
Sneed
Gay
CEH
Danna
Keyes
Wharton
Creed
Smith
Niang
Bolton
Kaindoh
Gray
Powell
Key

Plenty of young (under 25) talent on this team, and all of these guys have been making noise at camp. The only problem is that most of them are rookies or second year guys. You just have to give these guys some time to develop.

Also, our stars get so much damn attention that a lot of these guys will fly under the radar.

The Colts!

One guess at why this entire list/ranking is ****ing stupid?

(I don’t mean the OP’s post or the topic, I mean the actual list)

Someone somewhere will shit in peace tonight.

The writer mentioned Niang and not Trey smith...that tells you all you need to know about the ranking.

We just need a solid d and a couple of receiving weapons for Mahomes and we’ll be in it every year.

No Sneed or Wharton? What in the actual ****?

I think having the bulk of your team in "their prime" is good for WINNING!

Saw this the other day, and just chuckled…

It’s a little mind-blowing that the 2X defending AFC champs and 2019 SB champs not only have so many promising young guys on roster, but young guys playing and producing as well….

Then it’s even better when you realize our QB is only one year removed from being on the “young guy” list

29th is totally laughable, but hey, no sense getting wrapped up in it….we all know what we have, and soon enough so will the rest of the league

25 is an arbitrary number.

Mahomes is like 26. Chris Jones is 27. Tyreek is 27. All of those guys are in their prime and, with any luck, should continue to be for at least another few years.

Hell, Mahomes may not hit his prime for another 4-5 years.