The Era of Old Timers?

In today's NFL its all about instant gratification. Who can put butts in the seats? Who can produce the most the fastest? Who can sustain said production the longest? There's no time to wait around for players or coaches to develop and grow. Its all about the here and now; get with the program or get out. But in terms of fantasy football, more specifically at the running back position, the guys that were supposed to be THE guys for their team the "young-bloods" the "future" not a single one of them have lived up to the call this season.

We are a quarter through the 2014-2015 NFL season and those top 1st and 2nd round running backs you were so excited about, have done nothing but let you down! But what if I told you on your draft day that the guy you took in the 5th round the 8th round, hell, even picked up off waivers; what if I told you that's the guy you'll be counting on the first 5 weeks? You'd call me crazy and think I lost all credibility right?

I did a very quick and brief search on the internet and looked for the 32 oldest running backs in the league(ages 29 and up). Out of those 32 running backs 11 have fantasy relevance and those 11 are all RB 1 on their respective depth chart or RB 2 on the depth but are part of a split committee:

Reggie Bush-29-RB1

Frank Gore-31-RB1

Fred Jackson-33-RB2

Steven Jackson-31-RB1

Rashad Jennings-29-RB1

Maurice Jones-Drew-29-RB1

Adrian Peterson-29-RB1

Darren Sproles-31-RB2

Pierre Thomas -29-RB2

DeAngelo Williams-31-RB1

Danny Woodhead-29-RB3

Out of these 11 players you may notice that about 4-5 of them are currently in the top 15 at the RB position whether that's PPR or standard scoring! What's going on here? How can this be? This isn't supposed to happen... players are supposed to fizzle out into the abyss when they hit 29. However they are still holding firm to their spot on the depth chart. Now given, some on this list have suffered from injury or are known to be injury prone, and yes with age that happens, but to have fantasy relevance as you approach 30? Its just unheard of. So I propose the question, are we entering an era where players are staying healthier longer and becoming not less reliable but more consistent and more dependable in terms of fantasy production? An era where the old men are challenging the young guns for touches, snap counts, and roster spots? Or are we simply embracing a decade of anomalies, flukes, is this just a sequence of unheard of circumstances and the "old guys" are just riding on the coat tails of said peculiarities? Because if we are entering this new era of longevity with point producing running backs then the question stands, should the RB position be as sought out as it is in early rounds of fantasy drafts? Just food for thought. Thanks for reading!