How old are the top NFL players? Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, Baker Mayfield
As the new 2021/22 NFL season looms, the new campaign could be the swansong for some of the veterans of the game.
The new NFL season gets underway on Thursday night as Dallas Cowboys travel to Tampa Bay to play reigning Super Bowl champions as the Bucs look to become the first team in 16 years to win back-to-back titles.
Brady Bucs
The 44-year-old Tom Brady is looking to improve in his 22nd season after he surprised many two seasons ago making the switch from the Patriots to the Tampa Bay franchise.
Brady goes into the season in confident mood recently stating: "It's a totally imperfect game that you're trying to do as perfectly as possible. Every day I come out trying to do it. I'm hoping this is my best year."
Brady said he planned to play until he is no longer a "championship-level quarterback", which could be another several years given his mastery of the position.
"I'll know when the time's right. If I can't … if I'm not a championship-level quarterback, then I'm not gonna play," he told Peter King's Football Morning in America.
"If I'm a liability to the team, I mean, no way. But if I think I can win a championship, then I'll play."
Rodgers focused on season ahead
After a tumultuous summer for Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers when the 37-year-old felt he wasn’t being involved, or at least “part of the conversation” when it comes to decision on the Packers roster which led to the player to claim he was poised for a departure. Rodgers said his future with the team was uncertain but he finally rejoined Green Bay in late July, and the Cheesehead nation breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Tension between both franchise and player still exist as Rodgers didn’t hold back in a recent press conference in which he opened up about his feeling towards the team and his relationship with GM Gutekunst which he called “a work in progress.”
But the fiercely competitive Rodgers will be back under center for the Packers and if he can channel any lingering frustration into his play on the field, the rest of the league better look out.
Motivated Mahomes
Following the disappointment of losing last season's Super Bowl final to Tampa Bay, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are looking to the future.
"No matter how you ended the year before, you have to go in with the mindset of starting from scratch. We’re excited to do that and try and make another run at it.” claimed the 25-year-old recently.
The Chiefs have made it to the final game two years in a row, with Mahomes taking MVP honors in their Super Bowl LIV triumph over the San Francisco 49ers.
To Mahomes, the path back to the Super Bowl starts immediately as they face Cleveland Browns in the 21/22 season opener.
"It’s about putting in the work right now, day by day, getting better and better so that at the end of the year you have no regrets about what you did in the season.”
Mayfield into fifth season with Browns
The 26-year-old Austin born QB is set to start his fifth season with the Cleveland team in a season where many feel the Browns have a team to push for the Super Bowl despite starting the campaign with a tricky test as they face 2020 champions KC Chiefs. Mayfield was one of the best passers in the league for the final 10 games of the regular season as well as both postseason games he played and many will expect the 2018 Rookie of the Year to act as a spur for the side from Cleveland.
The player claims to have matured through 'experience' and admitted recently that: “for the first time in my life, I was kind of listening to the outside noise and I let that affect me too much,” he said.