NY Giants Week One X-Factors against Pittsburgh Steelers

3. NY Giants’ youth vs Steelers experience

The NY Giants have built one of the youngest rosters in the NFL, which is expected of a rebuilding franchise. The NY Giants currently have 26 players on their roster that are starting their third year or earlier, meaning that 49% of the Big Blue roster has completed two or fewer seasons in the NFL.

This is a team that is still very much learning the ropes as professionals.

The Pittsburgh Steelers on the other hand have 10 starters alone at 30 years old or older. Of course, the major difference between how these rosters are built is that the Steelers have been in win-now mode for 10+ years. The Steelers have veterans at some of the most important positions, where the Giants are especially young.

The largest disparity is at quarterback, where the Giants have the 23-year old Daniel Jones and the Steelers have the 38-year old future Hall-of-Famer Ben Roethlisberger.

Along the offensive line, the Giants have 21-year-old Andrew Thomas at left tackle and 25-year-old Nick Gates, who is starting his first game ever at center tonight, against the veterans 32-year old Alejandro Villanueva and 32-year old Maurkice Pouncey.

Youth is a good thing when looking at a roster long-term, but the NY Giants are young almost to a fault. The lack of preseason will be a killer during the first month of the 2020 and youth vs experience will be one of the biggest deciding factors against the Steelers.