Bear Digest

Where the Youthful Bears Core Ranks Compared to Other Teams

The annual study of teams' core players under 25 years old by ESPN indicates a positive Bears future but there is one downside.

Gene Chamberlain

Darnell Wright is said to have had an 89.5 pass block win rate by ESPN, another player succeeding in the Bears youthful core.
Darnell Wright is said to have had an 89.5 pass block win rate by ESPN, another player succeeding in the Bears youthful core. / Jamie Sabau-USA TODAY Sports
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Much has been made about how the Green Bay Packers became the youngest team to win a playoff game since the merger with their upset of Dallas last year.

Average age is a nice statistic but doesn't always say a team is the youngest or set up for the future.

The Bears, for instance, never could have qualified for being one of the younger teams last year or even this year because they have 40-year-old Marcedes "Big Dog" Lewis on the roster, as well as 36-year-old long snapper Patrick Scales.

They're a young team, nonetheless.

In fact, ESPN's Aaron Schatz did a more relevant look at teams' under-25 players and weighed how many starts and snaps they had, their overall quality as well as their potential and even their contracts.

As he writes, "It's important to note that you don't need to have youth to be a current Super Bowl contender. But young talent establishes how much success a team is likely to have long term."

The rankings he came up with are quite different. Not only are the Bears rated high for under-25 core, they are ahead of the Packers.

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The Bears came out No. 5 for their under-25 core, with Caleb Williams, Darnell Wright and Rome Odunze graded blue chippers. Wright, the Brian Piccolo Award winner for rookies, is singled out for an 89.5% win rate as a pass blocker in ESPN's analytics.

Schatz also pointed to Kyler Gordon and Tyrique Stevenson as standouts who will be leaving the under-25 crowd after this season.

Players like Gervon Dexter, Zacch Pickens, Jack Sanborn and Tyson Bagent are also in the 24-and-under group.

The Bears moved up on this list in terms of their youthful core from 12th last year to fifth now.

Unfortunately for the Bears, the Packers are not exactly buried on this list of teams. They are ninth overall after they were ranked 17th on last year's list.

Worse for the Bears, the Detroit Lions are atop the NFC North and they are No. 2 on this list.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.