Are Rams ‘too old’?

Matthew Stafford is hitting a wall that has ended the careers of most great quarterbacks

As the L.A. Rams prepare to separate from Cooper Kupp and mull over their future with Matthew Stafford, the main impetus behind both decisions is the age of both players. If Stafford was 27 instead of 37, or Kupp was 24 instead of 32, the only decision would be how much to pay them — not if the team should pay them.

But Stafford and Kupp are not the only Rams on the verge of being called “too old”.

The Rams are young — on defense

The Rams had one of the three youngest rosters in the NFL — only the Green Bay Packers had a younger average age and made the playoffs — but that is largely centered on L.A.’s cheap, inexperienced defense.

If the average included all the players that the Rams were still paying in 2024, then Aaron Donald would have at least brought that number up by a hair.

The youngest player on the defense, Kam Kinchens, was born in 2002. Kicker Josh Karty (2002) and punter Ethan Evans (2001) also helped bring down L.A.’s average age.

And even though some of the Rams most promising players were born after Y2K, like Puka Nacua, Jared Verse, Kyren Williams, and Braden Fiske, many of the players who factor into L.A.’s “young” average age are not significant contributors. The oldest player on defense is Darious Williams, who was born in 1993.

Linebacker Troy Reeder is 30 and corner Ahkello Witherspoon turns 30 in March. That’s not a death sentence...unless you play professional sports and then sometimes it might be.

The Rams are “getting up there” — on offense

The two oldest players on the 2024 roster were Matthew Stafford (born 1988) and Jimmy Garoppolo (born 1991), followed by Rob Havenstein (1992), Tyler Higbee (1993), and Kupp (1993).

Stafford is a great QB and many of history’s greatest QBs stopped playing at a high level before or during their age-37 season:

• Ben Roethlisberger missed his age-37 season with injury, returned for 2 more years
• Philip Rivers made his last Pro Bowl at age 37, sputtered out over the next 2 years
• Matt Ryan also went to the Colts to end his career, with his final season being age 37
• Dan Marino’s last good season was age 37 and he had his only career bad season at 38
• Eli Manning was serviceable at 37, replaced by Daniel Jones at 38
• John Elway won the Super Bowl at age 37 and 38, then retired
• Carson Palmer was okay at 37, ended his career at 38
• Steve Young led the NFL in touchdowns at 37, retired at 38
• Tony Romo’s career was finished by 35
• Kurt Warner made the Pro Bowl at 37, ended it after he turned 38
• Peyton Manning was good at 38, awful at 39

The rule remains that quarterbacks do...