The Learning Curve: Who Impressed—and Who Struggled—in Their NFL Debuts
Taking a look at some of this year’s most talked about rookies (and a kicker) and how their debuts this weekend affected their draft status.
Hold off on Omar Cooper Jr.: There were some early drum beats for Cooper in New York to immediately step into the WR3 job after being drafted in the first round. In Friday’s pre-season game, Omar logged as many snaps with the first team offense as Wayne Chrebet did: ZERO. It’s looking like he’s fallen behind Isaiah Williams and has some work to do to live up to that first round hype.
Antonio Williams may be toast: Another rookie that was given a lot of talk (and drafted relatively early in rookie drafts this season) is finding himself far down the Commander’s depth chart. The signing of Stefon Diggs was bad, but Williams is listed as the seventh receiver on their depth chart and didn’t hit the field Friday until after Treylon Burks, Luke McCaffrey, Dyami Brown, Van Jefferson, Jaylin Lane and my milkman. Okay, maybe not the milkman, but you get the point. Unless something changes in the next couple of weeks, he’s not even worth a late round dart throw.
Get on the Jeremiah Love train: In recent weeks Love has been falling in drafts, due to news out of Arizona that he might not be receiving a full load and Tyler Allgeier will cut into his carries. Friday night seemed to dispel a lot of that. Love out-snapped Allgeier on Thursday almost 3:1 and looked very good in the process. Running at a 5.3 yards per carry pace he also hauled in all three of his targets. Yes, please!
Great showing, but pump the breaks: If you haven’t heard you probably don’t listen to channel 87 on Sirius XM, but Michael Washington Jr. had 6 carries for 63 yards stat line on Thursday. However, that included a 53 yard run. As impressive as that is, that means he averaged 2.0 yards per carry on 5 of his 6 totes. Will he be a solid “break glass in case of emergency” handcuff to Jeanty. Absolutely. Should you draft him expecting he’s going to get any meaningful work in the backfield, barring injury? No.
It’s time for a Smack down!: If you are a drafter that picks a kicker before the last two rounds, pay attention. Or, even if you are not, put a little star next to Trey Smack’s name. The rookie hit four field goals in his debut for the Packers on Thursday. Two of them were from 58 yards, although one of those two was wiped off the board by a penalty. Bringing a 77% success rate on kicks over 50 yards in college with him, he’s certainly worth a round 15 pick (or earlier if you’re one of those drafters) in your draft.
Doing his best George Jefferson: Like George, De’Zhaun Stribling is moving on up. Stribling, selected by the 49ers with the first pick of the second round, was expected to take time to crack into the starting line up. With the season ending injury to Ricky Pearsall and Christian Kirk being Christian Kirk, the door was opened for him. Thursday night, De’Zhaun walked through. He caught 7 of 8 targets for 63 yards, working mostly against the Titans first team defense with someone named Kurtis Rourke (my milkman?) throwing him the ball.
Well, that’s not what we were hoping for: Perhaps the biggest question about a player this weekend was about a guy who didn’t play. Jordyn Tyson, the second WR drafted this year and the 8th player overall, did not play due to a hamstring injury suffered in a joint practice with the Jaguars. While there is no distinct timetable for his return, it has been suggested he may not be ready for week one. This is very concerning as he missed six games last year with hamstring injuries to both his left and right hamstrings, as well as most of the pre-draft process (the Combine and Pro Days). If he can stay on the field, he will be a great weapon for the Saints, but this “new” injury, combined with his injury history calls for caution and movement down your draft board.