You seem to have quite a nice core yourself, no one is particularly old. I'm lucky enough to be able to come 5th in the conference and have the 5th worst record in the league. That's due to the bottom end of your conference being so strong and the bottom end of mine being so weak. Gonna stay above that 6th spot because if I don't, I would have to play yourself, BHB, or HBH and I'd get knocked out easily!
However, I can remain afloat with a roster that only just goes under the player salary floor and hopefully get a good draft pickto join my youngster guys :D. I'm quite lucky because of the position I've been put in!
Well I'm transitioning away from my players who're approaching 30. Hence why I purchased another big to replace my most productive player. The great 8 has been tough all season, I think you're doing the right thing by ensuring you avoid the relegation playoff games because they're going to be tough whoever is unlucky enough to be playing them.
Sounds like your team is in a very enviable position. I've never been good at training rookies, the one time I lucked out and drafted an 18 year old player with HoF potential, I sold him immediately for cash injection into the team. Otherwise, I find I'm always having to train game shape, just to keep my players in good game shape. Probably not the best tactics, but they've got me this far.
Goodluck for the rest of the season mate.