The name of the game in the NFL now is hoarding as much elite young talent as you possibly can. The more cornerstones teams are able to develop into key contributors on their rookie deals, the easier it is to spend your remaining cap space on veterans to fill the holes and build a Super Bowl contender.
As far as that area goes, the Atlanta Falcons are falling behind in the league's new arm's race. Not only have they consistently failed to hit on the quarterback position, their elite supporting cast is starting to age out of the timeline where it'll make it easier for the Falcons to fill out the rest of their roster.
Atlanta is still home to plenty of talent, but young talent is another story. The benchmark of an age you want for those players is under the age of 25, as that's typically a player's age is when their rookie deal expires--and that's when teams are forced to decide how much longer they want to invest in him.
The Atlanta Falcons are running out of elite talent under the age of 25
ESPN's Aaron Schatz ranked NFL teams by their amount of talent under the age of 25 they have, and the Falcons were ranked pretty low. They came in at 22nd on the list, and that would feel low all things considered, but Schatz credited a technicality about birthdays for the abnormally-low ranking.
"Atlanta's top offensive stars are 25 or close to it," Schatz wrote. "Pitts turned 25 in October. London will be 25 on Friday. Robinson will turn 25 in late January, so he's the only one of the three players who still qualifies."
At the time of this article's publication, Drake London was 24 years old, but has since turned 25. Kyle Pitts is already 25 and will turn 26 in October, so that means Bijan Robinson is the only one of Atlanta's holy trinity on offense who is under 25--and he's the only one without a shiny new contract.
Yes, Zachariah Branch is under 25, but he has yet to take an NFL snap and it's too early to crown him. So then you have to look at the defense. Jalon Walker, James Pearce Jr., Xavier Watts, and another rookie in Avieon Terrell are also under the age of 25, but there are still some question marks there.
Pearce is facing legal troubles and could be suspended, Walker is still assimilating to a new role, and Terrell is also quite unproven. So for as many cornerstones as there are in Bijan, Walker, and Watts, they had just as many players miss the mark, so Schatz' concerns are warranted.
This is not to say the Falcons don't have young talent under 25, but their timeline to compete won't matter if QB woes keep holding this team back.
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