Player age vs years played

[Sef0r]

Example.

I am picking in a draft which will lead up to the 2008 season.
I want a franchise RB.
The best RB on the board was born in 1981.
That would make him 27 going into his rookie season.
In most real NFL situations a RB in his 30s will start to decline.

Question. Will FOF start to degrade my RB when he turns 30 (based on 3 years in the league) or will the game start the decline after a number of years played, for example 10 years?

I have always played the game under the impression that the game does a lot of calculation based on the age of the player. Players will decline the older they get, not so much the number of years they have played.

[JetsIn06]

It uses both to determine development and retirement, but I believe that Jim has said that the # of years played is more important.

[Sef0r]

Hahaha, that sucks.

I've taken a DT as a franchise player with the 3rd overall pick because he was 3 years younger. The 1st overall was a better all around DT, rated 50/93 after training camp. My 3rd overall ended up 40/88 after training camp.

If all goes well with minimal injuries to both players I would think my player would be the better choice of the two, 3 extra years of playing over the 1st DT taken.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

Honestly, I've never even paid attention to the age of draftees. I should probably start after reading this.

[Sgran]

Jeff Garcia is a good example. Because he played in the CFL for a few years, he is much older than his years of experience suggest. He played at a very high level for me, but then took a post-camp hit (like 9-10 points overall) after his 10th year as a pro (when most QBs would not deteriorate). The next year I brought in a young QB and he became the backup. Then he retired.

[boberot]

I just happened to notice this going into a MP draft.

A surprising number of the players were 25, 26 -- I even found a guy that was 29.

In fact -- while this is just anecdotal -- it seemed there were just as many guys in their mid-20s as there were guys in the expected range of 21-23.

Has anybody explored this at all? I'm curious about what the actual age for an NFL rookie is compared to an FOF rookie . . . .

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by JetsIn06

It uses both to determine development and retirement, but I believe that Jim has said that the # of years played is more important.

Are you sure about that? I remember the opposite, with age being the bigger factor. For example, in GEFL we use historical draft files and as there are some players with wrong birthdates, we had players retire after their rookie season, because they were 10 years older than a normal rookie would be. Now, those typos are incidents, but it's reason enough for me to believe that a 26yo rookie is not going to stick around as long as a 21yo rookie will.

Now, given the context of the question, I don't think you can ever be sure about when your RB retires. First of all, they start declining in ability much earlier than other players, for example they are over their peak before quarterbacks start peaking. As soon as your star RB starts losing carries, he'll begin to wonder when to retire. A lot of starting RBs retire before they turn 30 in FOF. Because of that, personally I have a hard time to think of a 'franchise RB' like people do with a 'franchise QB'. Unless I'm very sure my team is a RB away from winning it all, I wouldn't spend a first day pick on a RB anymore.

[boberot]

DOLA

After reviewing the 08 NFL rosters for the ages of rookies, the overwhelming majority are between the ages of 20 and 22. There are a few 19 year olds and 23 year olds sprinkled in here and there.

There were a total of 3 rookies who were 24 and 1 rookie who was 25.


I'll have to go back and look at some FOF draft classes, but I'm pretty confident FOF does not mirror this -- and doesn't even come close.

Any crusty old FOF veterans have a thought on this?

[claystone]

If this is the case regarding FOF rookies being 25 or 27 years old, can there be a Mod for this to correct ages of rookies?

It will stink if rookies are already 26 years old, and we can't adjust their age to be correct.

[Sef0r]

I have sort of accepted the fact that most players in the FOF draft pool are 24 years or older, I've been through at least 30 single player drafts and this is always the case. It actually gets worse the further along into a career that you get.

I would be in year 2020 and 30% (very rough estimate mind you) of the rookie pool would be born between 1994 - 1996. That makes them 24 - 26 coming into the draft.

I am going into pre draft in another single player career so what I am going to do is begin Free Agency then look at the top 5 at QB, RB, WR, DE, DT and CB and list their D.O.B. I will load the file again and get another list, I will do this 3 times then post them here. I will not do an average since that will skew things a bit.

UPDATE:
Please note this draft is pre 2008 season.
This list is basically the position, followed by 3 numbers representing the year they were born in the order that they were simmed.
Most players born in 84 would have turned 24 by the time the season started as not many of them had birthdays after August.


QB - 87, 85, 85
QB - 84, 86, 85
QB - 84, 85, 85
QB - 84, 86, 85
QB - 85, 84, 84

RB - 86, 85, 85
RB - 85, 84, 84
RB - 84, 84, 85
RB - 85, 84, 85
RB - 85, 85, 85

WR - 85, 84, 84
WR - 84, 85, 85
WR - 85, 85, 85
WR - 85, 84, 84
WR - 86, 85, 86

DE - 82, 84, 82
DE - 85, 85, 85
DE - 84, 85, 85
DE - 84, 84, 84
DE - 85, 85, 85

DT - 85, 85, 85
DT - 85, 84, 84
DT - 85, 84, 86
DT - 84, 85, 85
DT - 84, 86, 85

CB - 86, 86, 86
CB - 85, 86, 85
CB - 85, 84, 85
CB - 84, 85, 85
CB - 85, 82, 85

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by boberot

Any crusty old FOF veterans have a thought on this?

I'm guessing that I qualify here.

It looks pretty much cosmetic to me. Career lengths are accurate. So if the average starting DE plays from age 24 to 33, instead of 22 to 31, (or whatever the specifics are,) that doesn't bother me.

[Sef0r]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

I'm guessing that I qualify here.

It looks pretty much cosmetic to me. Career lengths are accurate. So if the average starting DE plays from age 24 to 33, instead of 22 to 31, (or whatever the specifics are,) that doesn't bother me.

I sort of agree with the above, though I would hope based on age that the 22 year old would play another 1 or 2 seasons until he was 32 or 33.

Based on the example above, when does the game start to degrade a players skill? I know there is a combination but that aside...

...does it calculate it when your 25 year old rookie DE hits 31 yrs (6 years played) or when he has played 10 years (he will be 35 yrs old)?

[korme]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

I'm guessing that I qualify here.

It looks pretty much cosmetic to me. Career lengths are accurate. So if the average starting DE plays from age 24 to 33, instead of 22 to 31, (or whatever the specifics are,) that doesn't bother me.

Sorry but you are not entirely correct. As MIJB stated earlier, the GEFL has experienced players with no injury history retiring after 3 years or so due to old age... I'll dig up some evidence to back this up. Age has a lot to do with it, it isn't cosmetic at all.

http://www.fof-gefl.com/player/player.php?playerid=7645

[Ben E Lou]

I'm not saying that age has nothing to do with it. I'm suggesting that it appears that the window is shifted. If a guy comes into the draft at age 35, of course he'll retire very early.

[MalcPow]

I'll give you the definitive answer on this one. I wrote customer support and got this response awhile back:

Age has some impact on retirement and aging. Not as much as years of experience, but a real effect.

So it matters, but, like everything, there's no certainty about how much it's going to matter in individual instances.

[Sef0r]

How generically broad can you get in an answer?

It has "some" impact on retirement and aging, but years of experience has more of an impact....

....but a real effect.

I don't understand that last past. Maybe I need to know how the question was asked to understand the context of it all.

[claystone]

Does anyone have a mod to allow us to change players ages in SP or even MP so it's more realistic to what a rookie should be?

[Ben E Lou]

The only way to change player ages would be to use the draft class editor to create each new class.

[MalcPow]

Originally Posted by Sef0r

How generically broad can you get in an answer?

It has "some" impact on retirement and aging, but years of experience has more of an impact....

....but a real effect.

I don't understand that last past. Maybe I need to know how the question was asked to understand the context of it all.

I found the answer as helpful as I'd really want it to be. My question was asked in the context of an observation I made about players in random universe starts often having abnormally young ages. In particular, I had a 10th year QB who was only 29 by birth year in the WOOF and he had only recently reached full development. It's not uncommon to see draft class generated players that are only in their 5th or 6th year at age 29, so I wanted to know if I should treat the player as though he were 29 and entering his prime or as though he were in his 10th season and likely to retire in the next 2-4 years. I read Support's answer as a sort of split the difference response.

[timmynausea]

I was curious about how far off the FOF classes may be, so I decided to compare the first two rounds of the 2008 NFL draft to the most recent NAFL draft. It's nothing definitive, of course, but I took the time to do it, so I figured I may as well post it.

NFL:
20 year olds - 3
21 year olds - 20
22 year olds - 25
23 year olds - 14
24 year olds - 1

NAFL:
20 year olds - 0
21 year olds - 6
22 year olds - 27
23 year olds - 25
24 year olds - 7

[Sef0r]

Originally Posted by timmynausea

I was curious about how far off the FOF classes may be, so I decided to compare the first two rounds of the 2008 NFL draft to the most recent NAFL draft. It's nothing definitive, of course, but I took the time to do it, so I figured I may as well post it.

NFL:
20 year olds - 3
21 year olds - 20
22 year olds - 25
23 year olds - 14
24 year olds - 1

NAFL:
20 year olds - 0
21 year olds - 6
22 year olds - 27
23 year olds - 25
24 year olds - 7

This would have taken some time to do, thanks for doing it too.
I guess it only differs by 1 year in that the game generates most players a year older then the NFL.

[ddrrbb]

I have Warren Moon in a historical league. He is now 30 years old, but only has 3 years exp. I had a mentor for him last season and I'm certain it helped him develop quickly. So, I'm not sure what to think, but I hope his playing experience counts for a lot more than his age.