Look at it this way, in normal times Fiske only stays in school fir 4 yrs. Now would he be as good had he come out as a 4 yr player or now a 5 yr player?
We got a better, more mature prospect because of the Covid rules. That ends next yr or so. No more 5 or even 6 yr guys, who were already redshirted, coming into the draft.
In general, being older is not considered a good trait. It’s actually a negative.
If you have a 21 year old dominating 19-24 year olds it is much more impressive than a 24 year old dominating 19-23 year olds. What percentage of the players that the 24 year old was dominating were only 20? A lot of the best players play two to three years and go to the NFL. Most of what stays on a college team past 21 isn’t going to be a top talent unless they were late bloomers
That’s one of the problems with evaluating older more mature players. Playing five years as a QB is a huge advantage to playing two or three. Being 24 playing against 21 year olds is a big advantage especially if a player has bed. Starting since he was 20.
So most teams look at it as a negative. The Rams turn it into a strength for two reasons. One, reason is that older players are more mature and a team is more likely to know what it is getting, when it comes to maturity and character.
The second reason is that the older player will be 28-29 when they reach their second contracts, which is often their peak. So if the Rams can’t fit their new contract under the cap, by letting them go in free agency, they will likely get bigger contracts which means higher comp picks.
