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5 players who turned back the clock with a new team after 30

Andy Lyons / Getty Images Sport / Getty

The ripe old age of 30 is considered past the prime of most NFL players, however, some athletes are able to hold off their inevitable decline better than others.

New York Jets running back Matt Forte, who carried the Chicago Bears offense for the better part of eight seasons before leaving in free agency earlier this year, said on Wednesday he hopes to "turn back the time" after changing teams at the age of 30.

While we wait to see if he can return to form, here are five veterans who found success with a new team after their 30th birthday.

Steve Smith Sr.

After giving the Carolina Panthers 1,000-plus receiving yards seven times over 13 seasons, the team Steve Smith called home felt his time was up and decided to move on from the passionate veteran pass-catcher.

Wrong.

Smith added an eighth 1,000-yard season to his resume in his first year with the Baltimore Ravens and led the team in receiving yards, while helping secure a playoff position and maintaining his intensity.

After announcing that he intended for 2015 to be his last season, a torn Achilles brought a premature end to his year. Of course, he couldn't go out like that. The 37-year-old will return for another season with the Ravens in an attempt at a second career comeback.

Charles Woodson

The NFL said goodbye to several great players following the 2015 season, but two of them stood above the rest: Peyton Manning and Charles Woodson.

Woodson's Hall-of-Fame career started off with four straight Pro Bowl appearances, but went through a dry spell for six seasons as he played through his 20s. The defensive back left the Oakland Raiders for the Green Bay Packers at the age of 30, when his career took off again.

Of Woodson's eight All-Pro seasons, five came after his 32nd birthday, along with a Super Bowl championship in 2011. He's tied for the fifth-most interceptions in NFL history, picking off 48 of his 65 passes after his move to Green Bay.

Carson Palmer

In 2011, Carson Palmer was on the verge of retirement at age 31. He had had enough of Mike Brown and the Cincinnati Bengals and was ready to hang up his cleats.

After a trade sent him to the Oakland Raiders, it appeared his career was heading for oblivion and he would eventually fade off as another washed up veteran in the Cailfornia sun. Two seasons later, he was traded to the Arizona Cardinals to work under Bruce Arians.

Since his arrival in Arizona at 33, Palmer has put up his two most productive seasons in terms of passing yards, was named a second-team All-Pro, grabbed his first career playoff win, and is now heading into the 2016 season with sights set on a Super Bowl.

Julius Peppers

Even when Julius Peppers registered double-digit sacks as a rookie for the Carolina Panthers in 2002, it would have been a tough sell to think he would be doing the same at 35.

Simply put: defensive ends don't last that long.

Peppers went from the Panthers to the Bears as a 30-year-old and then to the Packers at 34. He averaged 9.4 sacks per season through four years in Chicago and managed to hit 10.5 sacks in his second season as a member of the Pack.

Despite his age and the changing game, Peppers has been able to adjust his style, moving to outside linebacker, to remain one of the league's most disruptive pass rushers for 14 seasons.

Terence Newman

Following the retirement of Woodson, Minnesota Vikings cornerback Terence Newman will be the oldest active defensive player in the NFL next season.

After a steady nine-year tenure with the Dallas Cowboys that included two Pro Bowls, Newman became a member of the Cincinnati Bengals in 2012, at age 33, looking for one more shot. He was reconnected with his previous defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer and found a role contributing as a veteran member in his system, starting 16 games in 2015.

While cornerback remains one of the most difficult positions to play in sports from an athletic standpoint, the 37-year-old has etched out his spot as an important piece of the Vikings' fifth-best scoring defense.

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