The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have one of the youngest offenses in the NFL, according to Jimmy Kempski's projections over at the Philly Voice. Kempski calculates the Bucs offense's average age at 25.73, tied with the Seattle Seahawks as the fifth-youngest team in the league.
The Bucs' youth on offense was concocted almost entirely during this offseason. Cutting bait with Anthony Collins (29) and Josh McCown (35) and replacing them with two 21-year olds in Donovan Smith and Jameis Winston has a profound impact on the team's age, as does replacing Oniel Cousins (30) with Ali Marpet (22). In fact, Winston is set to be the youngest starting quarterback in the NFL.
Kempski may even be overestimating the team's age a little, depending on who wins the slot receiver and starting running back jobs, which could go to rookie Kenny Bell and second-year player Charles Sims, respectively. Then again, Austin Seferian-Jenkins might not turn out to be the team's actual starting tight end.
Regardless of what happens there, though, it's pretty clear the Buccaneers have built a young, talented group on offense. One that has the potential to be the core of a quality offense for the future, not just this season. But that will require those players to actually turn into quality starters. That's the problem with young players: you never know whether they'll pan out.
We only need to look to the recent past to understand that: the Bucs had one of the youngest teams in each of Raheem Morris' and Greg Schiano's seasons at the helm.