Kevin Williams finds Seattle to be a fountain of youth
Sep 3, 2014, 8:45 AM | Updated: 10:48 am
RENTON – The oldest player on the Seahawks’ roster is also one of the newest.
That makes defensive lineman Kevin Williams an outlier in both regards.
At age 34, he’s one of only three players on this team older than 30 when the season begins. He’s also one of only 10 players to make this team who are new to the franchise this year.
| Seahawks average age since 2005 | ||||||
| Season | New players | Avg. age of Week-1 roster | ||||
| 2005 | 18 | 27 years, 59 days | ||||
| 2006 | 13 | 27 years, 213 days | ||||
| 2007 | 16 | 27 years, 174 days | ||||
| 2008 | 13 | 27 years, 95 days | ||||
| 2009 | 16 | 27 years, 156 days | ||||
| 2010 | 26 | 27 years, 50 days | ||||
| 2011 | 27 | 26 years, 21 days | ||||
| 2012 | 15 | 26 years, 115 days | ||||
| 2013 | 17 | 25 years, 324 days | ||||
| 2014 | 10 | 26 years, 54 days | ||||
That’s the lowest turnover rate the Seahawks have had in the five years that John Schneider has served as general manager, and while the temptation would be to say that Seattle is a year older since winning the Super Bowl, that’s not quite true.
The average age of Seattle’s opening-day roster is less than 100 days older than it was a year ago. That’s significant in the larger picture.
In Tim Ruskell’s five years as team president – from 2005 through 2009 – the average age on the Seahawks’ opening-day roster was always greater than 27. In each of the past four years under Schneider, it has been younger than that.
That youth can also prove to be an asset even when the player in question is on the other side of 30. Take what Williams said on the second day of training camp this year, having just come to Seattle after playing the past 11 seasons in Minnesota and making six Pro Bowls in that time.
“It’s kind of infectious for me to be around so much energy from these young guys,” Williams said. “It kind of carries over to you, and it kind of gets you going.
“Being the oldest guy on the team, some days you don’t feel like getting out there running around, but you see these guys running around, flying, having fun and wanting to win and get better, it helps you come along.”
