For those of us who wait eagerly for football season, for those of us who start during the confetti-laden presentation of the Vince Lombardi Trophy every year to count down the weeks until our sport is back, for those of us who wait with bated breath and feel like we’re coming out of hibernation when we are greeted with sights, smells, and sounds of football, the triumphant return of the NFL is wonderfully familiar to us. While we may find the NFL welcoming, though, it’s far from welcoming to rookies.
Every year there are a handful of rookies who gain some real notoriety at the pro level, both those who were household names in college and those who came with little fanfare at all. Whether the anointed or the unheralded, there will be rookies who everybody is suddenly talking about. There always are. And while I don’t claim to know for sure who this year’s most impactful rookies will be, there are several I’d like to highlight here. I’ve broken them into a few categories, demonstrative of the many situations in which rookies might find themselves, and of the various expectations and roles that are given to them. Expectations will be the primary focus of our first category.
Rookies Under The Most Pressure
Fernando Mendoza – No need to wait around before getting to the most obvious one. While the intent is to bring him along slowly and there aren’t technically any expectations in Year 1, Raiders fans are champing at the bit for some good QB play to give them hope, clamoring for any sign that Mendoza can be the franchise the way they hope he can.
Akheem Mesidor – Already 25 years old, Mesidor comes onto a team with some of the most realistic Super Bowl aspirations the franchise has had in years, and he’s expect to contribute at least somewhat right away. (Fellow Miami first-round EDGE Reuben Bain, Jr. could also have easily made this category as the center of an urgent defensive re-tooling in Tampa.)
Carnell Tate – As a mildly unexpected 4th pick, Tate automatically gets extra pressure applied to him. Even more comes from being the #1 receiver for a team trying to see if they have a franchise QB. The Titans need to develop Cam Ward, and they’re asking Tate to be his biggest help while veterans are still asking him to carry their pads to practice.
Caleb Banks – As a young, relatively inexperienced player with some known injury concerns, it must be daunting to step in and try to replace good players at your position who were released in the offseason. Especially when your team clearly believes it should be back in the playoffs again this year.
Rookie Quarterbacks Who May See The Field
Before straying too far from conversation about Mendoza, it’s understood despite Kirk Cousins being the Week 1 starter that the top pick will be starting at some point this season. Likewise, it’s anticipated that at some point Carson Beck will be taking the reins from Jacoby Brissett. Those are obvious. Here, I wanted to highlight two quarterbacks selected later in the draft who could see time, as we see happen somewhere in the league nearly every year.
Taylen Green – Green, who has a rocket arm and major athleticism, played in a difficult, NFL-style offense for his last couple of seasons in college. The physical and mental tools combined give him a great deal of upside. In the very possible scenario that finds the Browns out of contention and still having no franchise QB, there’s no good reason to put that upside out there on the field.
Garrett Nussmeier – While Justin Fields is the backup who would enter ongoing games if Patrick Mahomes were to get injured again, I think that starts you can plan for will go to Nussmeier. Obviously Mahomes won’t be needing a succession plan anytime soon, but if Nussmeier looks good in a few spot starts, he would become a trade piece. (In tomorrow’s AFC West preview, I’ll be covering more of what I expect from the Chiefs as far as QB usage.)
Rookie Unit Changers
Some guys are so special, even right away, that they change the entire side of the ball on which they play for their team. And when the unit gets better, the team almost certainly gets better, so watch out for these guys listed below.
Jeremiyah Love – Another fairly obvious choice, but it’s hard to undersell what having a legitimately elite every-down back can do for you offense, and Love has great potential to be just that. Even as a rookie he’ll change the nature of how the Cardinals can play on offense, and that will only be accentuated in the next few years if they find a QB.
Caleb Downs – The Cowboys picked Downs in part with the intent that he can be a movable chess piece within their safety-heavy scheme, as well as knowing that he can play at a high level no matter what schematic changes come in the future. Fit to line up anywhere in the secondary, he’s a playmaker on a defense that desperately needed one.
Kadyn Proctor – While expectations are low in Miami this year, Proctor can be a potential bright spot. With his athleticism, he can re-define how a team approaches the run game, and ball-carriers are where most of the talent is concentrated for the Dolphins. If he shows enough as a pass blocker, he’ll also be invaluable for a potential franchise QB, be that Malik Willis or a draft pick in the coming year or two.
Kayden McDonald – While the Texans defense doesn’t sound like a unit that needs a whole lot of change, McDonald opens up a whole new dynamic. More disruptive than any of the current interior defensive linemen in Houston, he’ll add yet another skill set to worry offenses when dealing with that front, both in pass protection and in the run game. And that was hard enough already.
Day 3/UDFA Rookie Breakouts
There are always a handful of rookies, every year, who either fly under the radar or slide for one reason or another, and have us collectively saying “He was picked in WHAT round?” as his rookie season and even his career goes on. This group could be some of those guys.
Camden Brown – Cowboys fans were relieved that preseason darling Brown made the roster even in a crowded receiver room. While having arguably the best 1-2 punch at wideout in the league doesn’t leave a whole lot of targets to go around, everything I’ve seen from Brown suggests he’ll take advantage of any that he gets. If Dallas has injuries in this room or someone performs disappointingly, they can trust Brown to make a few plays.
Keionte Scott – Another rookie on the re-tooled Tampa defense, Scott will be put in plenty of positions to make plays, particularly playing at a nickel position that seems to grow in importance every year in the NFL. If he plays at all like he’s capable of doing, he’ll get noticed over the course of the year.
Tanner Koziol – Tight ends were the story of the draft this year, and Jacksonville took their fair share to say the least. Throughout his years in college, Koziol always found ways to produce, and the shift toward utilizing more tight ends at once should give him ample opportunity to do so.
Jack Kelly – The attention from Giants fans is (rightfully) on Arvell Reese at the linebacker position, but Kelly can play. A sound tackler with a nose for the football and some pass-rushing savvy, he does everything you need an off-ball linebacker to do. It’s entirely possible the Giants found their linebacking duo for the next decade all in one weekend.
Rookie Fantasy Stars
Love naturally would fit in this category as well, but I’ve already discussed him here. He’s also going high in drafts, while I wish to focus on late flyers and waiver wire prizes here. For that reason, I’m also not highlighting De’Zhaun Stribling, who has begun to fly up draft boards in his own right.
Ja’Kobi Lane – A larger wideout than Lamar Jackson is typically used to working with, he can open up a new dimension in this Ravens offense that could earn him more and more targets as the year goes on. He flashed in the preaseason, and is starting to garner a little more attention in the late rounds.
Kenyon Sadiq – While injuries have held him back in the offseason and will likely hamper his production early on, I have high expectations for Sadiq. By the time fantasy leagues are late in the regular season and getting into postseason play, he could be earning more targets than anyone on the team other than Garrett Wilson. He’s a tantalizing talent worth at least having on your watch list.
Someone will show up and take this rookie class by storm. They always do. And the funny thing is, it has just as good a chance of being a player few have ever heard of as it does some college superstar. These are a few of my picks, but we’ll just have to wait and see. Regardless, best of luck to all the rookies as they acclimate to the greatest league in professional sports.
