Define a Veteran

[bigmac9812]

Give me your definition of a Veteran in the NFL. Trying to do research correlating the success of dynasty teams that are "Veteran" heavy vs those who tend to go younger.

[HawkeyeState]

As in age or number of years in league?
You could define a veteran as somebody who is a certain age at a certain position (RB over 28, WR 30 or older, QB 31 and older etc)
You could also define a veteran as someone who has played in the league at least say 4 seasons or more and has a veteran savvy about them.

[Plank]

Battle-tested, proven commodity .. generally a third year player..

[qazxswedcvfrtgbnhyuj]

Battle-tested, proven commodity .. generally a third year player..

I would agree with this over going after age. With so much coming down to how heavily they have been used in positions like RBs, I don't feel like the age is as important in calling somebody a veteran as is their record on the field for at least a few season. Or how battle - tested they are, as my pre-poster nicely put it.

[FantasyFreak]

Battle-tested, proven commodity .. generally a third year player..

I would agree with this over going after age. With so much coming down to how heavily they have been used in positions like RBs, I don't feel like the age is as important in calling somebody a veteran as is their record on the field for at least a few season. Or how battle - tested they are, as my pre-poster nicely put it.

Killer name. What's it the short form of?

[TurtleBK]

he's just crawling the keyboard from q down to z, over to x, up to w, over to e, down to c, etc..

3 years in the league for me is a vet

[DonBrazi]

Like any word, it's going to depend on the context. For example, if you're talking incoming rookies, a veteran could be a second year player. But if you're talking second year players, a veteran could be a fifth year guy. It's relative. I don't think the word is as much about how long a guy's been in the league as it is about a guy being in the league longer and/or having more experience than another guy..

[thebeast]

There are two ways I see this. The first and most directly related to your question:

1) I would compare historical adps of redraft and dynasty startups. Players like Matt Forte, Peyton, etc who are picked early in redraft but much later in dynasty formats could be termed veteran players. You could use some defined disparity between adp to create a list of 'veterans'.

Less to your point, but your question also led me to this train of thought.

2) There is a disparity in age and tenure between say Peyton Manning and AJ Green, but both are safe picks (assuming Peyton plays this year.) I think really it may be consistency, which comes with some tenure in the league. I would specifically be looking at players that have performed within some defined ranges for the past 3 years. From that data you would be able to see who is a 'safe pick' as a WR1, WR2, etc. and you could then grade the positional values to dynasty startup adp and see who is being selected later than their numbers suggest they should be.

[Never Veto1]

Without getting to technical and in-depth with it. I would say a player that has been in the league 3-4 years is a veteran.

According to the NFL Players Association the average career length is about 3.3 years. The NFL claims that the average career is about 6 years (for players who make a club's opening day roster in their rookie season).