The fact that the LA Rams remain a very young team is mind-blowing

The LA Rams are defending NFL Super Bowl Champions. But this team is not the best team that money can buy, as many tearful competing fan bases have suggested. Rather, this is a team that remains quite young, quite competitive, and quite future-focused. In fact, thanks to a graphic posted on Twitter, we see that the LA Rams are the youngest NFL roster and the sixth-youngest professional sports team roster this year.

And yet, they are the best in the NFL at the same time.

Of course, sitting at an average age of 24.6 is not exactly anchored into the top spot with two other teams right behind at 24.7 years of age: The Carolina Panthers and the Minnesota Vikings.

But pause a moment, and let this sink in.

These LA Rams are young, so very very young.

How can LA Rams roster sustain success?

So how can the LA Rams roster, bursting with so much youthful energy, manage to win so consistently?  I can assure you that 31 NFL teams have data analytics and scouts trying ot glean that very thing to benefit their own team. But having observed the LA Rams operations under head coach Sean McVay, here are several basic principles to finding success despite the overabundance of youth.

Youth is a positive thing in the NFL in some regards. Thanks to the NFL/NFLPA collective bargaining agreement, rookies who enter the NFL have a defined rater of compensation that is no longer wildly speculative and financially crippling for the team. Rather, rookies who are added outside of the first round are relatively cheap.

And with the Rams roster bursting with elite players (three All-Pro elite veterans on the defense alone), the team is always looking for new ways to pinch those NFL pennies. What better way than to take full advantage of the equivalent of bringing in a bevy of NFL interns (a.k.a. undrafted rookies), determining if any have that certain something to have a successful career, and then hanging onto those players by assigning them to the practice squad or a full roster spot?

Let’s examine how this team wins with youth.