Players that Peaked Late, those that became good/great after 25

Jim Plunkett

Could Demar DeRozan be one for basketball? Got his 1st All Star appearance at 25.

Vince Evans


Nolan Ryan
Randy Johnson
Pedro Martinez

Not sure what to call Ankiel as he was becoming a star then remade himself

Also, Dennis Rodman is another late bloomer for basketball. He didn't even start playing college basketball until he was 22 years old and got drafted when he was by 25. The guy was working as a janitor until he inexplicably got a major growth spurt at age 20.

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Pedro Martinez

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Pedro Martinez? He was definitely not a late bloomer. He made his major league debut at age 20 and made his first all-star game appearance at age 24. He also didn't have a year when his season ERA was below league average until he was 34 years old. The guy was a really good pitcher early in his career before becoming superhuman in his late twenties.

I thought Pedro was 25 when he came up. Maybe it was Ramon who was older.

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Vinnie Testaverde

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Dude was a wunderkid in college - won the Heisman and is the all-time Hurricane TD leader.

Peaked or maybe just not well known/respected?

Antonio Brown, Kamara, Brady, Jordy, Bowe, Josh Gordon, Steve Young (although highly regarded, didn’t perform well until later). It depends on perspective.

I think it’s just a matter of opportunity. To be an NFL caliber player is something in its own right. Some guys have to sit behind and wait.

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Players that Peaked Late, those that became good/great after 25

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25 isn't that late. I know that 27 was the expected peak power production for fantasy baseball YEARS ago.

For WR, it seems that the peak years are between 25-29 years old: 59.4% of peak seasons (80 catches with 1200 yards and at least 6 TDs) occurred in those years: Source

For RB, the peak years seem to be 23-28: 80.7% of "peak seasons" occurred when players were between those ages.
Source


Picture source

Peak years differ according to sport and position. You might want to move it to 29-31 or so if you really want a better idea on players who peaked "late." It seems like many of the NFL players start to fall off the cliff as they age into their late 20s/early 30s. A later date would also allow for the difference between nfl and mlb to not be so distinct (MLB clubs might want to hold a player down in the minors til they're sure the player is ready to stop them from hitting arbitration early or if they have a loaded team).


I think Randy Johnson is probably one of the best example. Was a decent player who got it together in his age 29 season and then was pretty spectacular. For example, at age 35, 36, 37, and 38, he won 4 Cy Young Awards with 81 wins to 27 losses, 2.48 ERA, 1417 Ks to 288 BBs in those 4 years.