Chris Wells is really, really young. In fact, he only turned 21 in August 2009, making him one of the youngest rookie running backs in league history. The table below shows all running backs drafted in the first round since the merger. I've included the year the player was drafted, his draft pick, his age on September 1st of his draft year, his VBD as a rookie, and his career VBD.

Many of the best RBs entered the league at a really young age -- Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, Emmitt Smith and Marshall Faulk are arguably the four best RBs to enter the NFL since 1970, and all were 21.5 years of age or younger on September 1st of their rookie campaign. Jamal Lewis, Edgerrin James and Steven Jackson, three of the most productive backs in the past decade, were among the seven youngest backs. Clinton Portis, a second round pick, turned 21 on September 1st of his rookie season.

Eric Dickerson didn't enter the NFL until age 23, but he was born on September 2nd; ditto for Brian Westbrook. Shaun Alexander was born on August 30th. So is this just how the sample falls, or is this something about an late summer birthday? Who knows. But guys like Payton and Sanders and Smith and Portis and James probably couldn't have entered the NFL when they did if they had been born a month or two later; these guys all entered college right around their 18th birthday, with some of them probably enrolling while they were still 17 years old. Had they been born in October or November, they may not have entered college for another season. Their lives could have been significantly different; they would have grown up as the oldest members of their class instead of as one of the youngest. Chris Wells was taking snaps in Buckeyes practice when he was 17 years old, competing against players much more physically mature than him. He was doing the same thing in high school. And junior high school. That sort of development tends to do good things for athletes.

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