Most NFL players are long gone before reaching their late-30s. Pro football is a violent, punishing sport that isn’t conducive to long-term careers, though that depends on the position played.
However, that doesn’t apply to the following group of players who have defied age and maintained health, finding a way to remain effective on the wrong side of 35. Earlier, we posted a list of the NFL’s top 25 players under the age of 25. This is the other side of the spectrum.
Here’s a look at our top 10 players over the age of 35 for the 2017 NFL offseason.
(All ages as of June 1, 2017.)
1. Tom Brady, Patriots: Despite being the NFL’s oldest starting position player at the age of 39, Brady had a record 28-to-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio in another Pro Bowl 2016 campaign. Oh, and he won his fifth Super Bowl.
2. Drew Brees, Saints: The 38-year-old future Hall of Fame quarterback is coming off a season in which he led the NFL with 5,208 passing yards. Incredibly, he’s passed for over 4,300 yards in all 11 of his seasons with the Saints, and he’s completed at least 68 percent of his passes in each of the last four years. The 10-time Pro Bowler is unreal.
Ben Roethlisberger ➡️ @__bELIeve17 ➡️ ¡TOUCHDOWN, @steelers!
Le dan la vuelta al marcador. ?#PITvsCIN #HereWeGo https://t.co/JVl3M0u5Tp— NFL México (@nflmx) December 18, 2016
3. Ben Roethlisberger, Steelers: Arguably still the game’s best pure deep passer, the 35-year-old Roethlisberger has earned Pro Bowl nods in each of the last three years.
4. Andrew Whitworth, Bengals: The 35-year-old offensive tackle has 164 games the last 11 years, and he’s aging like fine wine. Whitworth has been to the Pro Bowl in back-to-back seasons, and Pro Football Focus graded him as the third-best left tackle in football last season.
#Dolphins DE Cameron Wake gets around #49ers RT Trent Brown and tosses Kaepernick to the ground. #SFvsMIA pic.twitter.com/4Z2gtNqIgQ
— Rob Lowder (@Rob_Lowder) November 27, 2016
5. Cameron Wake, Dolphins: Coming off his second 11.5-sack season in a three-year span, the 35-year-old continues to benefit from having a late start in the NFL. He’s a five-time Pro Bowler.
6. Jason Peters, Eagles: The 35-year-old offensive tackle takes too many penalties but is consistently graded as one of the top left tackles in the game. He’s been named to the Pro Bowl in each of his last nine full seasons.
7. Carson Palmer, Cardinals: The 37-year-old struggled quite a bit in 2016, but is only a year removed from a season in which he was a legitimate MVP candidate while leading the league by a wide margin with a yards-per-attempt average of 8.7.
8. Julius Peppers, Panthers: The 37-year-old pass-rusher had 7.5 sacks despite playing a limited role with the Packers last season. It marked the ninth consecutive year in which he had at least seven.
5. Matthew Staffords TD pass to Anquan Boldin in the closing seconds to beat the Redskins. pic.twitter.com/viRuZVWeTH
— Harbaugh fan (@DETGoBlue) January 2, 2017
9. Anquan Boldin, free agent: How in the world has nobody signed this guy? Sure, he’s 36, but he had 67 receptions and eight touchdowns while catching 70.5 percent of the passes thrown his way last year in Detroit. And he’s missed just seven games over the last eight years.
10. Jason Witten, Cowboys: The 35-year-old is no longer the dominant tight end he used to be, but he still had 69 grabs for 673 yards while posting a catch rate of 72.6 percent in 2016.
Honorable mentions: Chargers QB Philip Rivers (35), Giants QB Eli Manning (36), Chargers tight end Antonio Gates (36)