The Minnesota Vikings Have One of the Youngest Rosters in the NFL

The Vikings have some key veterans, but their overall roster is one of the league's youngest.

It may not seem like a team that has Harrison Smith, Kirk Cousins, Adam Thielen, and Patrick Peterson as key veterans would be one of the youngest rosters in the league, but that's exactly the situation the Vikings are in.

Despite the presence of those veterans on the other side of 30 years old, the Vikings' massive influx of young players over the past few years means their overall 90-man roster is extremely young.

As of May 15th, per this list put together by Colts writer Andrew Walker, the Vikings were tied with the Panthers for the second-youngest roster in the NFL at an average age of 24.74 years.

Those numbers aren't perfect because not every player has an age listed on each team's roster, and there have been changes in the days since it was posted — including the Vikings signing 26-year-old cornerback Parry Nickerson — but it's safe to say the numbers are pretty close.

The easy explanation for how the Vikings are so high on the list is to look at their last three draft classes. Minnesota brought in 12 players in 2019 (nine of whom are still around), a whopping 15 last year (14 still around), and 11 more in the most recent draft.

Add in UDFAs from the past couple years, and the Vikings have 52 players who are currently 24 or younger among the 86 total players on their roster. That's enough to balance out veterans like Britton Colquitt (36), Andrew DePaola (33), Smith (32), and Cousins (32).

The Vikings are somewhat lacking in that middle ground of players in their 'peak' years (25-29), although key players like Eric Kendricks, Michael Pierce, Dalvin Tomlinson, Danielle Hunter, Dalvin Cook, and Brian O'Neill are in that age range.

Minnesota has enough veteran talent to win games in 2021, but the future is very bright with young stars like Justin Jefferson and Cameron Dantzler and a ton of young talent that should develop over the coming years.

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