Tag Archives: 2024 NFL Draft

NFL Offseason

Second- and third-year breakout candidates for the 2026 NFL season – Defense edition:

Back for the second half of this annual series. With us being in the true dead period of the NFL offseason, with training camps set to start partially about a week from now, we’re talking about young breakout defenders across the league. Yet again, we’ll be looking at seven different players on the other side of the ball.

Defining the term “breakout” can be somewhat volatile, so here are the guidelines I typically set for the defensive players – no front-seven defenders who recorded double-digit sacks or tackles for loss, players who intercepted 4+ passes, earned a Pro Bowl/All-Pro nomination, or are just generally considered one of the better performers at their respective positions. Moreover, I typically stay away from guys who have barely seen action in the pros up to this point. This, for example, makes names like cornerback Travis Hunter (Jaguars) and defensive tackle Walter Nolen (Cardinals) ineligible.

Among last year’s group, Laiatu Latu finished top 20 in total QB pressures with the Colts, Payton Wilson made some key plays as one of the starting linebackers for the Steelers to help them make the playoffs, and Browns safety Ronnie Hickman was credited with only one touchdown allowed on well over 1000 defensive snaps, compared to his nine passes defensed. Here’s who made the list this time around:

 

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NFL Offseason

Second- and third-year breakout candidates for the 2026 NFL season – Offense edition:

It’s that time of the year. We’re in the depths of the offseason, with NFL training camps starting off in a couple of weeks. We’ve spent a lot of time discussing the movement of players and construction of rosters, before examining burning questions for all 32 teams at this stage. So now, let’s bring back my annual two-part series on young breakout players across the league. Once again, we’ll be looking at seven different players on offense and defense each.

To avoid questions around what constitutes a “breakout”, here are the guidelines I set for myself – no 1000-yard rushers or receivers, players that have scored double-digit touchdowns, earned a Pro Bowl/All-Pro nomination, or are just generally considered one of the better performers at their respective positions already. That’s why you won’t see someone like Bears tight-end Colston Loveland show up here. Also, I typically try not to include such players who have barely seen the field as pros, although I did make one exception here.

Drake Maye ended up as the runner-up for league MVP, Rome Odunze and Ricky Pearsall showed promising flashes when healthy, and Tanor Bortolini established himself as a quality starter at center for the Colts, as guys who made the list a year ago. Let’s get to the 2026 version:

 

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NFL Rookies

NFL All-Rookie team 2024/25:

We’re taking a small break from the NFL playoffs to spotlight the players with the best debut seasons. As always, I constructed a full 11-player lineup on both offense (11 personnel) and defense (nickel personnel), along with four special teamers (kicker, punter, return specialist, and core team player). I also added six key substitutes/backups for the first two units.

Overall, I’d say this is one of the strongest rookie classes we’ve had in recent memory, with six names who at worst should be on the fringe of Pro Bowl nomination and a handful of names who didn’t even quite make the cut who I’d already label as average starters. So this wasn’t an easy exercise, although several guys were no-doubters based on how bright they were able to shine straight away. And just for clarity purposes, I only took the regular season into account.

Let’s meet the squad:


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NFL Offseason, Storylines around the NFL

One burning question for each AFC team ahead of the 2024 season

In the second half of this little two-piece mini series, I’m switching over the AFC and ask myself “what is the one burning question I have for each team as I think about the 2024 NFL season?”

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NFL Draft, NFL Free Agency, NFL Offseason, NFL Trades

Most improved position groups across the 2024 NFL offseason:

After spending the last month reflecting on what the player acquisition process looked like for all 32 teams, with a focus on the names brought in via the draft, it’s now time to take a step back and identify the positional units that improved the most throughout this process, comparing the additions and departures at those spots.

This is purely based on the players that were brought in/let go from the point the 2023 NFL season ended onwards, not taking injuries into account. So you’re not going to find the Jets here for getting back Aaron Rodgers from the torn Achilles he suffered four snaps into his time with New York for example. Along with that, I like to take a broader look at this in terms of which position groups were stocked up best rather than just talking about a singular star performer they acquired.

Let’s dive in:

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NFL Draft

AFC West Draft & Roster Review 2024

This is the final edition of our month-long draft & roster review series, where I break down every single player all 32 NFL teams selected in the draft – one division at a time – discussing the general roster make-up and the roles of the new pieces within it!

And we finish off with a bang, with the reigning Super Bowl champs in the Chiefs, the Broncos with a new rookie QB, the Chargers with completely overhauled leadership and the Raiders, who didn’t draft a quarterback and are entering an interesting year!

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NFL Draft

NFC West Draft & Roster Review 2024

We’ve arrived at the final week of our divisional draft & roster review series, with the NFC West – which includes the reigning conference champions, the team with the largest draft class across the league, a franchise that finally picked in the first round again after an eight-year break and one of my favorite classes overall.

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NFL Draft, NFL Offseason

AFC South Draft & Roster Review 2024

We complete our trip down South by looking at the AFC side of things with the Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans – discussing all the players these teams drafted, the state of their rosters and how the new pieces fit in!

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NFL Draft, NFL Offseason

NFC South Draft & Roster Review 2024

We kick off the second half of this series with the NFC South – where one team made plenty of noise when the shocked the rest of the league with who they selected in the top ten.

Once again, I’ll be providing scouting reports on all the players selected, talk about their fits within the new team and share my general thoughts on how these rosters have been constructed.

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